An Everlasting Vow
by NessieGG
Summary: NejiTen. AU. A king and queen plan to join their kingdoms by betrothing their children. Just when a wedding seems possible, Princess Tenten is kidnapped and enchanted by the sorcerer Orochimaru. Prince Neji determines to save her, learning love on the way
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: **After much contemplating, I've decided to take a break from serious fics and bring you all some CRACK NejiTen. And not just any CRACK NejiTen. This fic is based on the animated feature _The Swan Princess_, which, in turn, is based on Tchaikovsky's ballet _Swan Lake_.

So this is nothing serious. It may be out of character, it may even be absurd, but this is just for fun, and I'll do my best to keep it all as believable as possible (if at all). This is about as AU as it gets. Hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto, The Swan Princess, _or_ Swan Lake._ I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

By Nessie

Chapter One

Once upon a time, a beautiful queen gave birth to a daughter on the very day her husband perished from illness. Golden hair damp with sweat, the queen's sorrow at the loss of the king warred with her joy at the birth of her child. She was a responsible woman and had aided well in King Jiraiya's mighty land, and so held herself up admirably. With a baby in the cradle, she assumed the throne with vigorous command.

The country of East Fire entered into its golden age under the rule of Queen Tsunade. The people were not concerned with its change in leadership, for now there was an heir to their kingdom. Rejoicing filled the land from border to border, spilling over into the neighboring country of West Fire.

Years ago, the two nations had existed as one kingdom, but battle had rendered it into halves. Over the passing decades, old grudges dissipated to give way to separate but benevolent rules; one by the family of Jiraiya's ancestors in the East, and the other by the Hyuuga family in the West, headed now by the oldest of the former king's twin sons, Hiashi.

Hiashi was a mostly serious man, but he had lived as a friend of Jiraiya and came to celebrate the birth of the late king's daughter upon Queen Tsunade's invitation. At the grand party, Hiashi introduced his children. His infant daughter, days younger than the new princess, was Hinata. Neji, the four-year-old boy, was not actually King Hiashi's son but his nephew and the child of his deceased twin brother. Neji, Hiashi explained to Tsunade, was older than his daughter by a year, and would be the one to inherit the kingdom of West Fire.

Standing together, the royal pair watched as Neji approached the silk-draped cradle which held Tsunade's child. His dark hair fell long upon the shoulder of his white traveler's cloak. As he peered into the cradle at the lovely baby within, his moon-like eyes were visibly curious. The gift of the Hyuuga royal family, a golden necklace hung with a golden heart, was in his hand. Young Neji dangled the necklace over the girl, his mouth tipping upward when tiny hands reached for the shiny distraction, before dropping it among her downy blankets for her to play with.

"What is her name?" Hiashi asked the question softly of the mother, who smiled using deep red lips.

"I have named her Tenten." Placing a hand over her belly, flat once more, Tsunade seemed to recall the occupation there. "It means 'heaven'."

The Hyuuga leader nodded appreciatively, though he kept his gaze trained his nephew. The queen knew of his protective urges toward the boy. The loss of his brother had affected Hiashi more than most people understood. "She certainly was a blessing."

"Yes. There was a time when Jiraiya and I thought there would be none after us. We came close to messaging you about accepting this..." Queen Tsunade trailed, her voice lost to the amiable chatter and happy music that swelled in the festive court of her palace. "Kingdom," she finished after several moments, gaining Hiashi's full attention at last. "Your nephew, Neji. Is he a good child?"

"He will find a rebellious day, I have no doubt," replied Hiashi, one of his jet black eyebrows lifting. "But yes, he is a fine boy. Why do you ask?"

"Well, as you can see, Tenten is a very fine girl herself." Unplanned brilliance lit the queen's gaze, though it looked like mischief in the dark brown orbs gleamed brighter than the jeweled diadem on her blond head. "I have a very good idea, King Hiashi."

Hiashi paused. As long as he had known her, he thought Tsunade a competent leader but given to the occasional impulsive action as well. "And what is that?" he humored, keeping his wariness concealed.

"As you will agree, there has been no reason for years that East and West Fire should not be rejoined."

With that, he did agree. "Yes."

"Well, you are married, and while I am not too old for marriage, I'm afraid I am too dedicated to Jiraiya's memory to wed again."

"I assure you, I only admire that," said Hiashi politely, still waiting for what was sure to be a dynamic point.

"That being the case," continued Tsunade, "I cannot imagine a better future than the joining of our two heirs to recombine us as the single land of Fire at last!"

Dynamic indeed, Hiashi thought, as the first vestiges of a smile began to reveal themselves. "Betroth them, you mean." He turned his stark white gaze to the image of his young ward standing over the newborn princess. "Queen Tsunade, you_ do_ have a very good idea."

"I know!" Tsunade crowed gleefully, brown eyes positively glittering now. "Now, we cannot simply thrust them together when they are of age. I will not toss my daughter to a prince due to convenience. I want her to know love, as I have."

"Of course." Romance, however, was not a strong point of the king. "What do you suggest?"

That was exactly the question she had been waiting for. "When she is older, I will bring her to your palace. They will spend every summer together. Playmates first. Then friends, you see. And once the natural way of emotions commences..."

He had to admit, the plan was ingenious. "I can find nothing wrong with the idea," he said.

"Good. Then you will take care of Neji, and in – oh, let's say six years – you will see Tenten again at your gate." Ecstatic, Tsunade clapped her hands, then rubbed the palms together, rings glimmering. "It will be something to see, Hiashi."

Looking up from the cradle, Neji watched his uncle clasp hands with Queen Tsunade to seal a bargain he was entirely unaware of.

Elsewhere in the room, a pale-faced witness threw one disdainful look at the child and baby before turning on his heel and stalking out, black hair swaying with the motion. He held no concern for either of them, but in a rarely-seen lair a mile below the palace, he ran his bony, ice-cold fingers over jars and bottles filled with strange liquids.

"Tomorrow, Anko," he said to a young woman in the corner.

Her dark violet hair was the color of smoke in the light of a green fire waving from the lair's hearth. "Yes, my lord." She rubbed her hands over the dirty skirt of her dress, cleaning them of nervous perspiration.

"Queen Tsunade will die much more swiftly than her husband, and then I..." Through snakelike nostrils, the sorcerer inhaled sharply, and the breath he exhaled was nearly palpable with ill intent. "I will be rid of all obstacles."

Before the subservient Anko could utter either encouragement or dissuasion, the neglectfully unbolted door was broken down, and on the other side of it stood Queen Tsunade herself, impeccably dressed in a satin gown from the party. She appeared even more commanding than usual with eight armored guards ready behind her and her sharp-minded advisor at her side.

"It seems Shizune was correct in her suspicions," said Tsunade, her voice ringing powerfully throughout the small space. "You plot against me in the dark while I carouse in the lighted world up there."

The sorcerer's eyes flicked from East Fire's queen to the aid, watching him just as steadily. "You surely are misinformed, my Queen." The woman, Shizune, had been unnervingly attentive as of late.

"I dare say I'm not. I should have listened to her sooner, Orochimaru." The queen's jeweled fingers curled into fists. "Shizune is steadfastly loyal, something that cannot be said for you. My husband trusted you and your tonics, and had he only accepted the cures of alternate physicians – masters of the normal arts, not the mystic ones – he would have lived to see our daughter's smile." Tsunade paused. "No, in fact, it is my fault he lies dead. But the same fate will not befall me. Not yet."

Orochimaru's grin came slowly, curling his sickly-looking flesh so that ridges spread in his cheeks. "What will you do to me, Tsunade? Kill me? Kill my girl here?"

Tsunade's eyes shifted to Anko, filthy and underfed. She was young, no more than fifteen, and somewhere in the royal's heart, pity opened wide for the girl. "Not her, anyway," she answered.

"No!" cried out Anko, presenting her voice for the first time since the disruption of her master's plans. She rushed across the room to fall to her knees at Orochimaru's feet, clutching at the hem of his dark robe. She loosed silent tears. Above her, Orochimaru stood apathetically smiling.

"She will not leave me, as you can see," said Tsunade's betrayer.

Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "I do not spill innocent blood. But the wicked do not go without punishment. Bind them both," she ordered, and the guards flooded the lair to do as she told them. In moments both Orochimaru and Anko were manacled. "Take them to the border of West Fire and banish them into the following land. King Hiashi will not interfere. I wonder how you'll fare in that place, Orochimaru."

She turned her back, and Orochimaru's smile had fallen away from his angular face. No doubt he was picturing the untamed, unoccupied forest only ever entered by hunters for game. He had never endured such lack of civilization. "Do not think we are done, Tsunade!"

"See that not a grain, ounce, or page of his materials goes with him," was Tsunade's only response. As she and Shizune left the lair, she heard the crash of containers, liquids splashing, books crackling as they burned, and then a long, strangled moan by Orochimaru as his power seeped from his mind and body. Both women could feel it dissolve in the air around them like ash scattered by wind.

"Was it wise, my lady," asked Shizune with utmost respect, "to be so kind?"

"He is no threat to us now," Tsunade assured her as they entered the bright lights of her hall. The guests were mostly gone now, including King Hiashi and Prince Neji, and now servants had begun to tidy up. Stepping over to a seated maid, Tsunade took her daughter into her arms. "We have more important things to concern ourselves with, haven't we?"

"Such as?"

Love gorging her heart, Queen Tsunade riffled her thumb through the sprout of dark hair that had already grown on the baby's head. Brown eyes the color of her own stared up at her. "There is only six years until young Neji and my Tenten meet."

_To Be Continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: **Thanks for reading! And here's a fast update. (This is what happens when I have snow days.)

**Disclaimer:**I do not own _Naruto, The Swan Princess_, or _Swan Lake. _I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

Chapter Two

By Nessie

It was a warm, bright day in West Fire when the country received its first visit from Princess Tenten with her mother. The country had miles of farmland, and West often traded food for construction goods from East. Riding in front of Tsunade on the queen's horse, the wide-eyed girl saw dozens of pairs of men bartering, while women young and old in plain dresses carried water from wells to thirsty men in the fields. It was planting season, and Tenten had never seen such wide spaces.

Even the village leading to the palace was about a third of the size of East Fire's capitol. Villagers reciprocating her interest watched the royal procession from both sides of the street. Putting on a charming smile, Tenten waved as she had been taught.

In the last few yards before they reached the wrought iron gate of Hyuuga castle, Tsunade began fussing, smoothing the skirt of Tenten's pale pink summer dress and finger-combing her soft brown hair. She sat through it, energetically petting the mane of the mare they rode, as though to pass on her torture. Tsunade snapped at her to keep her hands back or they would get dirty.

Tenten didn't understand what about this visit was so important to her mother. Or perhaps she was just cross from traveling. They had rode from the palace to the river that separate East and West Fire, crossing by ship, then had rode from the docks to the palace of King Hiashi. If anything, Tenten thought her mother should be elated at finally arriving.

The twin doors opened inward, and in rode the two royals, followed by Shizune on a brown horse. The medic/bodyguard/advisor was the only entourage whose accompaniment Tsunade had allowed. As the horse came to a halt, Tenten felt a pat to her back; a gentle reminder to be on her best behavior.

On the front grounds of the many-turreted, stone palace waited the whole of the Hyuuga royal family. There were a great many of them, she saw, and would learn that only the four nearest the gate lived in the main castle while the rest lived in various placed around the country.

King Hiashi stood with Hinata close to his left side, a young girl who held a few-months-old baby in her small arms. To Hiashi's right was Neji, black hair straight and hanging to the middle of his back, looking like a younger version of King Hiashi. He, like Tenten, wore no crown or other symbol representing their privileged status, yet even now he carried an air of solemn regality about him.

Hiashi did not smile, but his face relaxed somewhat at the sight of Tsunade and her traveling companion. "You are welcome here, Queen Tsunade. I had heard your daughter had grown, but I did not predict how much."

"I must say the same for your adopted son there," said Tsunade in turn, still atop the horse. "As well as Hinata. She will prove a good friend to my girl, I am certain."

"Actually, she leaves tomorrow morning for finishing school," Hiashi informed. "She may not be my heir, but as my daughter she deserves proper upbringing."

Tsunade did not bother furthering the topic, and little Tenten knew why. She was told before leaving their palace that King Hiashi's wife had passed away the previous year in the birthing of his second child, the baby girl Hinata now pressed close to her chest. The two girls and Neji were the closest family the king had.

Tsunade now dismounted and gently pulled Tenten from the saddle after her. Shizune followed suit, and the whole of the Hyuga family bowed and curtsied to their visitors. Tenten, though not usually timid, felt a blush rise to her cheeks.

The taut line of Hiashi's mouth did curve now, almost imperceptible in the glaring sun and at such great height. "You are also welcome, of course, Princess Tenten."

Brown hair catching unmanageably in the wind, Tenten only waited, feeling the weight of Tsunade's hand on her shoulder. She saw Hiashi exchange a meaningful glance with Neji, who without a word strode forward toward her. On guard at first, training in manners eventually took hold of her, and Tenten relaxed.

"Go on," murmured her mother, providing an unhelpful little push that scooted her a few steps in Neji's direction.

"Hello," said Neji softly, white eyes cast to the dirt road beneath his feet.

Prompted his uncle, "Hello what, Neji?"

"Hello, Princess Tenten," continued the ten-year-old boy, with a ten-year-old's reluctance. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

She knew when she was not found truly pleasing and had to force charm into her voice as she gave a wobbly curtsy. "It's a pleasure to be here...Prince Neji." The boy looked ready to bolt.

"Well?" came Hiashi commanding inquiry, and Tenten could practically feel the expectancy radiating for Tsunade's desire for a good first impression.

Restraining a sigh, Tenten extended her small, chubby hand. The older boy took it with even greater hesitance, and she tensed as he leaned over. When he kissed her hand, it was only a peck of lips and on the very ends of her fingers.

Not liking it either, Tenten quickly rubbed her hand on her dress. Neji pressed his lips together. But their parents looked pleased enough.

She, on the other hand, could only think of the beautiful day and of how many more she would have to waste in the presence of this pale, pallid-eyed, high-and-mighty, quiet, begrudging _boy_.

Not fun, Tenten decided, and stuck to her decision.

* * *

This would be only the first of many summers that went precisely this way: Princess Tenten would arrive with Queen Tsunade at the home of Prince Neji and King Hiashi. Hinata would leave for finishing school practically at the same moment, depriving Tenten of any chance for equal female companionship. She had no choice but to spend time with Neji or be left alone, as her mother was always with Hiashi, making plans of some sort.

Neji, on the other hand, could always escape somewhere with Lee, the son of Hiashi's leading advisor, Gai. The two boys kept to themselves, away from Tenten.

When Tenten was eleven, she hit her awkward stage, which coincided with a stage of chronic tomboyishness. It was that summer she began wearing tunics instead of skirts. She put her hair up in two buns atop her head to lessen instant noticeability that she was a girl. And she made friends with Lee by demonstrating her self-defense ability in sparring matches, which the boy frequently lost because he refused to use his full strength on her.

To make up for his best friend's shortcomings, Neji took his betrothed on himself. Their parents watched from the garden, drinking tea.

"Has she always fought like that?" asked Hiashi in surprise.

"We believe in teaching girls to defend themselves in East Fire, my lord," Tsunade replied, sipping.

"I suppose... They will get along, won't they?"

"Oh, you don't think they already do?"

However, the sparring soon turned to grappling. To force a bond of some kind, both rulers sent their children to bed without supper once the match resulted in Tenten's bleeding nose and a black eye for Neji.

Summers came and went, and although it often seemed a renewal of war between the separate Fire nations was likelier than a reunion, there were moments when Neji and Tenten suffered each other in silence at meals or during quiet evenings indoors when it was stormy outside. This gave their parents hope, but when they tried to amuse their children – such as showing them a prospective map of the land of Fire once East and West were joined – tempers flared once more and they began their resentment anew.

Meanwhile, rumor circulated far and wide on both sides of the river border. Neji and Tenten would be married after the girl turned sixteen, some said. Other declared it would be twenty. The more cynical maintained they would _never_marry, because they hated each other so much. These people were not actually cynics at all, but friends or relatives of servants in the two castles who witnessed the prince's and princess's delight in the autumn and winter months when they did not have to live in the same kingdom, and who passed on what information they knew.

Change came over them both with adolescence. Neji grew to pay more attention to Tenten, though it was mostly in the negative ways. He found ways to vent his frustrations on her, such as seeing that something she ordered from the kitchens was prepared incorrectly or that he soundly defeated her in any matters of sport from swimming to fencing. But certain things she did (mundane things, such as wearing her hair in two long braids instead of buns and trading in her earth-toned tunic for vibrant gowns) arrested his attention and did not free it.

"I have a hunch," said Lee to him one day, in a summer when the other boy had grown ungainly tall and altogether mischievous. "I believe you_ like _the fair Tenten!"

They were watching Tenten speak with a captain's son, Shikamaru, who was not easily distracted by the opposite sex but now seemed as willing to flirt with her and Tenten ostensibly was with him.

"I believe," Neji retorted in razor tones, "that you are a complete fool."

"But my father claims there is nothing wrong with such a thing, Neji!"

"Your father advises for my uncle – whom, as we know, is also a fool." Besides, thought Neji, Tenten's nose was still dusted with freckles, which he did not find attractive, and she was still fairly short. Not to mention the lack of female development. The list went on and on, but faults came to mind less easily now.

* * *

Adolescence passed them by with about as much minimal damage as can be done by a hurricane. They listened to Tsunade's and Hiashi's reasoning for the marriage now, but they spoke out against it not only forcefully but intelligently. It came down to cunning by both Tsunde and Shizune to even get Tenten onto the boat to West Fire. Hiashi had to threaten Neji with banishment from the training grounds for weeks at a time unless he approached Tenten with honest civility instead of the icy, false respect he pierced her with each year. The "day of rebellion" he had predicted had manifested into a number of years.

After a particularly long winter, when Tenten was eighteen and Neji twenty-one – behind schedule, as the king and queen saw it – the two took great evasive maneuvers to avoid that summer's meeting. Neji could only think of how well he might have done without his betrothal; he had never had the freedom to hunt with the wild of his uncle's kingdom, or even that of Queen Tsunade, lest some tragedy befall him and he did not make it to his wedding day. Tenten, in contrast, had never walked the streets of East Fire's own capitol without at least Shizune at her side. She had no idea what true privacy was.

But Tenten was half-carried, half-dragged to West Fire by her mother's impressive strength, developed over years of similar courses of action. Age did not easily slow down Queen Tsunade. Shizune assisted, dressing Tenten by force in the palace rooms given to them each year.

Neji, for his part, put up a good fight but was no match for both Hiashi's discipline and Gai's exuberant, iron grip. One way or another, his dark locks of hair were combed, trimmed, his boots shined and his royal cape was tied in place before he was ushered to the south door of the Hyuuga castle's ballroom while Tenten was shoved to the north.

"Must you push?" Neji demanded at an irritating loss, his words falling on deaf ears.

Tenten did not hesitate to remind her mother that, "His hands have left me_bruises_!" Her mother apparently did not care in the least.

Both were half-tossed into the ballroom simultaneously. In equal stubbornness, they faced opposite walls. Neji folded his arms. Tenten, arms akimbo, drummed her fingernails on her hips.

After what felt like an age, intrigue got the better of them. Tenten shifted first, and the rustling of her skirts alerted Neji to her movements. Both turned, and Neji saw her moments before her gaze settled on him.

The first thing he noticed was that she once again wore the golden heart necklace given to her as an infant (he knew that its absence from her throat each summer had resulted in severe scoldings from her mother or Shizune). It highlighted the smooth length of her neck, which gave way to lean shoulders below and a perfect oval face above. The freckles were gone, noted Neji. He saw the clear cocoa of her eyes, the perfectly-matched hair now freed and hanging in thicks waves even longer than his own hair. The gown Tenten wore was mostly white, with red trim at the shoulders, hem, and neckline. It clung to a body he remembered as boyish but now loudly declared her female.

He wondered, unable to stop staring, what transformation had overtaken her when the snow had covered their kingdoms?

Tenten, for her part, performed admirably as her heart began to attempt an escape from her chest the moment Neji unconsciously smiled at the sight of her. Smiling nervously herself, she mentally admitted instant like of the way the Hyuuga prince looked. The flowing, white shirt set off his hair, his golden-lined, dark cape adding a form of true nobility he had lacked in previous years. She was surprised that he knees did not begin shaking when she stepped toward him in response to his striding forward.

Neji did not say anything, which relieved her as she wasn't certain she could manage the feat at present. He merely bowed. As well-trained as she was, Tenten's elegant dip of a curtsy came from wanting to make her own good impression today.

His eyes latched onto the gleaming gold necklace, which he recalled from boyhood. He did not remember, however, the pale engraving of a swan on the surface. It was lovely on her.

"It's a pleasure to be here," Tenten murmured at last, he voice loud only because of the grand ballroom's emptiness. She did not realize she echoed the words of their first meeting.

Yearning for a better look, Neji went to her. He straightened her from the curtsy with a hand upon hers, and this time the kiss he pressed to her knuckles was unreserved and flattering. Looking up, he met her surprisingly pleased face.

The two did not even notice when King Hiashi and Queen Tsunade, having spied from a crack in their respective doors, burst in and led a charge of maids with platters and flowers, musicians, and torch-carrying servant boys who dimmed the lights.

When soft music began, Neji pulled Tenten to him by the hand he still held, and their dance began. Isolated, they were watched by hopeful parents and enthralled guests as they spun in gentle circles in the center of the ballroom.

Tenten's hands grew warm in his, and her nerves soon melted away under the quiet intensity of his silver stare. She found within moments that she would have liked to stay here, gracefully dancing in his arms, commanding his full attention.

But the dance soon stopped because the charm of the moment weaved its intended spell, and Neji's and Tenten's lips met in front of dozens of courtiers from both their kingdoms. Tenten's hand clung to his shoulder while Neji's found its way to her hair.

Pulling away, Neji was the first to break from the ensuing daze. Gripping her hand, he turned to where King Hiashi stood with Queen Tsunade. "I will marry the princess!" he announced to the room. At once, applause and cheers sprang from the witnesses.

The noise woke Tenten from her trance, and she turned to Neji in shock of his declaration.

The revelers went on without noticing, even when the she withdrew her hand from the prince's.

_To Be Continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note**: No more snow days! Updates will be slower now, but I'm still having fun with this and hope you are too. In this chapter I tried to keep varying it from the movie, but badly so!

**Disclaimer**: I do not own _Naruto_,_The Swan Princess_, or _Swan Lake_. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

Chapter Three

By Nessie

The ballroom was awash in gaiety. The smell of the feast combined with the jovial music ordered by Gai (King Hiashi was generally not aware of what constituted a celebration) was enough to drunken even the sourest people present (including King Hiashi's) with delight.

Queen Tsunade had already begun uttering insistences regarding her daughter's wedding to Shizune, who nodded attentively. Lee, in his desire to congratulate the two among whom he had been raised, had taken but one step in their direction before Tenten's voice filled the hall as strongly as Neji's had:

"Wait!"

One of the horns with the orchestra hit a terrible note, Queen Tsunade literally bit her tongue, Hiashi turned so quickly it seemed his spine might snap, and Lee tripped over his own feet to the floor. Peace became pandemonium for a brief moment before all was reduced to shocked witnessing as all silenced themselves to hear the princess's words.

It was Neji, however, who spoke first. He was just noticing that Tenten's fingers were no longer warmly linked with his. "What's the matter?"

"I just..." His lips hung parted as she fought for words.

"Everything of you I see is exactly what I've ever longed for in a woman," Neji continued. The statement was somehow unromantic, so prosaic was he.

"How?"

The question caught him somewhat off-guard, but Neji met Tenten's alert brown eyes stare for stare, as he always had. "Haven't you realized..."

Her chest rose quickly, in eager expectation.

"You're beautiful," he said. "The most beautiful..."

Princess Tenten expelled the breath in just as much haste. Raising an arm to run her own fingers nervously through her long, dark hair – how she longed for a dagger or even a needle to busy her hands with! - she squared her shoulders. "Thank you," she told him. "Yet...surely...there must be more to me than beauty alone that compels you."

The eyes of the prince, so like two moons, turned suddenly unsure. It was an unusual sight to see, Neji in a position of anything less than absolute confidence. It had been one of the things that Tenten had always most resented and secretly admired of her betrothed. "I..."

"Neji." Hiashi's voice was stern but also anxious. In such an unanticipated moment, he appeared to share his nephew's apprehension. Beside him, Tsunade's hands were balled into fists. The glares she sent Tenten's way were easily ignored.

"Does it concern you only that I am beautiful?" specified Tenten, taking one hopeful step toward him. "What more concerns you?"

Again, the king's prompting call: "What more, Neji?"

But Neji stood there, thunderstruck and unmoving. It soon was clear that he could only mentally grasp at the now plenty air between him and the princess. He at last made an attempt to respond. "What more is there?"

There was a thwack audible throughout the ballroom as the flamboyant Gai slapped a hand to his forehead. Lee's forehead made a similar sound as it hit the floor in despair.

As for Tenten, her newly-squared shoulders now slumped. Without a word, she turned and swept from he ballroom; not in visible distress but with perfect nonchalance. Her mother and Shizune soon followed.

Neji, on the other hand, could not move. Silence continued its uncomfortable reign over the room. It was a rare day indeed that any member of the house of Hyuuga faced humiliation, but today it seemed Neji had embarrassed no one but himself. As Lee pried himself from the floor, Gai called for more music but the melody served only to heighten the sense of failure rather than ease the tension.

Feet away, King Hiashi downed an entire goblet of ale.

* * *

Queen Tsunade's party departed from the palace that very afternoon. As the purpose of their summer visits had come to an end, however unfortunate, she upheld that they no longer had any reason to occupy West Fire.

"If there is nothing else to say," King Hiashi replied in his customary solemn tone of voice, "we at the very least tried. We tried incredibly hard, in fact, Tsunade." He took his fellow ruler's hand and helped her to the seat of her saddle.

"Certainly," agreed Tsunade in the same brisk manner of veiled disappointment. "And trying, it seems, is all that can be done at times." The exchange was a dark cloud in a day as beautiful as the one on which the queen and her daughter had first arrived in the west.

Beside his uncle, Neji watched Tenten mount her white horse with a whisper of her beautiful skirts and a pat to the mare's neck. Irritation had seized him during the last few hours, and seeing her tie the strings of her riding cloak at her throat only caused the negative feeling in him to swell. She did not glance in his direction.

Tsunade noticed this as well and made a point of ordering, "Say farewell to our hosts, Tenten."

She flipped her hair, a waving flag of indignant womanly victory. It was one of the tricks she had picked up from her mother. "Farewell," she called to the pale-eyed royals on the road.

Shizune frowned, and Tsunade arched an eyebrow.

"Farewell, Prince Neji," she revised more softly. Her knuckles were white on her horse's reigns.

It took a moment, but when Neji did not voluntarily deign to reciprocate, King Hiashi almost threateningly touched his shoulder. Neji met his uncle's gaze, retaliation in mind, but he backed down beneath the fury there. He looked once more to Tenten. "Farewell, Princess." None could be sure, not even Neji, but there might have been a note of regret in the words.

With a last nod, Tsunade steered her mount to take the lead, followed by Shizune. Tenten's head at last budged from its stubborn forward position, but just as stubbornly, Neji looked sideways, only watching her exit through the gate when he heard her horse's hooves progress on the road.

When all three woman were gone, Hiashi reacted uncharacteristically by tossing his hands into the air. "So many years," he announced in clear temper. "So many years of planning, of coming to agreements, and now – wasted by a fool nephew!"

Neji waited until the offended monarch disappeared into the castle before turning, only to see his cousin Hinata watching from a distance. A lock of her arrow-straight hair, black as night, was clenched in her nervously shifting right hand. She had grown from a timid girl to a timid woman. Neji spared no time for her but marched right past into the palace himself.

* * *

"You've broken my heart, you know." Tsunade's arms were crossed as they bumped along in the carriage taking them to the ship at the docks. Night had come early, and wind and rain lashed at the drawn shades to either side of them.

Accustomed to her mother's taste for the over-dramatic, Tenten did not react but continued to calmly tie her hair up into the twin buns she still favored as an adult. One of the scarlet ribbons caught on her little finger, and she paused, realizing she would have to start over.

"I cannot even understand what you did today," Tsunade lied, her ruined hopes getting the better of her. "What was it you wished for Neji to say? He is a man, my child. He will not know your mind in the way I do."

Tenten now took a deep breath and made to answer the queen. "I see that I've disappointed you, Mother. But I could not promise myself to him. Not then."

"Why?"

"He doesn't love me," said Tenten passionately. "Or at least I can't be sure that he does."

"He said you were the most beautiful woman he had ever even thought of," Tsunade reminded her. "As far as men go, that is often as close to a true confession of love that you may ever receive. Why, even your father..."

"I want more than that, Mother! Not just my appearance, but me, myself, must be the reason Neji wants to marry me."

Tsunade then remembered the words she had said to Hiashi nearly two decades ago, and a little sigh escaped her crimson lips. "I see. Well..." Reaching for the princess's hand, she interlaced her ringed fingers with Tenten's undecorated ones. "Perhaps he will learn some sense and try again in a proper way. Until then," she advised, "be just as you are – strong and brave." A sparkle of her usual mischief entered her brown eyes. "And then feel free to send Neji vindictive letters. Sometimes we must fight for our happiness."

A smile broke out on Tenten's young face, and she leaned forward to embrace her mother. Just as they were pulling away, ready to begin less serious topics, Shizune's voice reached them as they hit a particularly vicious jolt. "Your Highness!" The carriage slowed, then stopped, nervous whinnies from the horses reaching their ears over the wind.

Tsunade looked past the cover on her window. Tenten saw the rosiness promptly vanish from her mother's cheeks even as Tsunade's jaw set. Purposefully, Tsunade opened the door and stepped down from the carriage. Tenten started to follow, but a firm shake of the head from the queen and the girl remained obediently confined.

Tsunade's voice was heard over the weather's din ("You!") before a strong thunderclap rattled the carriage. Tenten gripped the seat, but the lantern fell from the ceiling to the carpet. Glass shattered, and the light was extinguished. She took a deep breath to calm her racing heart.

There was audible conversation, but it was too low for Tenten to make out what was said, or with whom her mother was speaking. That the person was a man was all Tenten could figure. And there seemed little hope of the rain letting up.

A strange sound different from the storm caught all of her attention, and then a bright green glow illuminated the carriage through the smallest of cracks. Too nervous and worried now, Tenten flung open the door. "Mother! Shizune!"

There wasn't time to register the status of her loved ones or even anything she could see. There was only a deafening hiss...and then...

Her hair ribbons were clutched by the wind and torn from her tresses, lost to the night.

_Neji._

_To Be Continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes**: From what I can tell, this is pretty well-liked. (You CRACKheads you!) Thanks for reading!

**Disclaimer**: I do not own _Naruto_, _The Swan Princess_, or _Swan Lake_. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

Chapter Four

By Nessie

No region of West Fire was spared from the summer storm's harassment. The weather had turned from balmy to chaotic, exactly like Neji's mood. The young prince did not want to be anywhere near his uncle at the moment, but neither did he want to hole himself up in his own rooms, so he descended to the servants' floor to inflict his presence upon the non-royal inhabitants of the palace.

It turned out, however, that as he paced the crowded floor of Gai's and Lee's quarters in a grounded level, that he had done little more than invite the agony of Gai's presence upon himself. While Lee played a round of chess at the suggestion of Shikamaru, his usual loss well in play, Neji endured the exaggerated abuse of the king's advisor.

" 'What more compels you than beauty,' she asked!" His account of that day's tragic events grated on Neji's ears with horrible accuracy. "And you said – fumbled, really – 'what more is there.' _What_ _more is there?_!" Gai shook his head fiercely. "I agreed with King Hiashi about sending Princess Hinata away in the hopes that she would become a refined, charming lady! Yet I think we've wronged _you_ in the process. Even after summers upon summers with Tenten, you are clueless about the fairer sex!"

"I acknowledge," said Neji sharply, "that I performed poorly. I see no reason for your dramatics."

"I dramatize nothing!"

"You've lost your queen," Shikamaru said dully. He was speaking to Lee as he removed the correct piece from their shared chess board.

"Exactly!" exclaimed Gai. "In fact, Prince Neji! Let me demonstrate how disastrous today was for us all." Bounding over to the board between Lee and Shikamaru, he proceeded to pick up the white queen piece that Shikamaru had just discarded as well as a white knight. "Here, Lee! Play Princess Tenten's role, and I will play Prince Neji!"

Lee gleefully accepted his white queen from his father. "Ahem. 'Oh, Neji!'" he shouted in a voice pitched too high even to mimic Tenten's. " 'Does it concern you only that I am beautiful?' "

Gai, in a voice pitched too low to be Neji's, responded, " 'Oh, Tenten! I can't say anything because I'm so confused!' "

" 'What more concerns you?' "

" 'What more is there?' "

Even Lee was wincing now, and he threw down his piece. "As tightly bonded as our friendship is, Neji, even I must admit that today ended in catastrophe!"

Neji, experiencing his humiliation all over again, could only stand beside the window. He looked a perfect figure of discontent as lightning flashed and rain ran down the patterned glass in rivulets. And Gai had claimed not to dramatize. "Is this absolutely necessary?" he queried in impatience.

"In the hours that have passed," asked Shikamaru in an unchanging, bored tone, "has a good answer to her question occurred to you yet?"

"Certainly." Neji ignored the indecisiveness that rose within him as he attempted a response. "Tenten is...well, we were children together..." He folded his arms and tapped a finger to his bicep, thinking. "She has always been...at least to me..." Taking a breath, the prince tightened his shoulders, then looked to the three. "Wouldn't you say?" he said at last.

Gai, Lee, and Shikamaru all stared at him with expression of equal lack of impression.

On the defensive, Neji turned away from them toward the spattered window. "I can't articulate it in the way she wants."

"Obviously," Lee muttered.

"But I feel something now that, just last summer, did not exist." Neji pressed one palm to the chilled glass, remembering the smoothness of Tenten's hand, rough in places from where she had gripped a fencing foil or horse's reign. "It was like taking flight."

"Ah," Gai said, a smile winning the plain of his face at last. "So she lifted you into the air, did the princess? And could you have not mentioned that you were floating this afternoon?"

"I could hardly realize it at the time," murmured Neji, his attention away from the older man. "She _was_ beautiful, wasn't she?"

With a sigh, "Yes, Neji," Lee agreed. "But you yourself know that your comment today was..."

"What?" His brow furrowed.

"Incredibly dumb."

The flat statement stung a bit from the distinctively goofier man. "Do you truly think I have no intention of rectifying my mistake?"

"At this point," Shikamaru answered cynically, "I don't see how you can."

A bit of the damp rolled off Neji's conscience now that he had restored hope in himself. "For a beginning: why has she always come here? I am just as able to travel as Tenten. In a week, after I've prepared myself, I will go to her in East Fire." As the plan unfolded, he really started to feel confident once again. "I will see her country as she has seen mine, and I will tell her—"

Before he could relay that his intended quote, the servant's door burst inward, allowing the rain and wind and noise of the storm to enter the already chilled room. The figure in the doorway was out of the reach of the candlelight, until another bolt of flashed from the sky and lit up the arrival.

"Shizune!" exclaimed Gai. Immediately, all men, including Neji, raced to the door. Once the personal aid of Queen Tsunade was carried inside to recline by the fire, the door firmly shut against the storm, the dark-haired woman began to speak.

"Queen Tsunade...and Princess Tenten...on the road to the dock." Panting, she lifted a hand to wipe at her brow where rain and sweat mingled. Her shoes and the hem of her cloak, they saw, was muddied and torn. They concluded that she must have ran miles back to them. "We saw...something. A flash of green. And the horses, they panicked and my lady. My lady!" The aid shuddered, so upset and broken by the weather. The sudden warmth increased her exhaustion, and she promptly passed out with her head upon Gai's knee.

"What on earth," began Lee.

"Tenten." Neji was faster thinking and went to his feet with jarring alacrity. Turning, he bothered only to call out, "I'm taking your horse, Shikamaru!" before bolting out the door. He either did not hear or did not heed Gai's shout for him to wait.

_Green flash_.

These were the two words that repeated in his mind as he drove the steed of the captain's son through the tight, rain-whipped trees beyond the palace grounds, over cliff-sides Queen Tsunade would had to have traversed to get to the road leading to the docks. What could cause a green flash in the midst of a lightning storm? Lightning was white. Rain was...wind was... His thinking blurred as his fears increased with the length of the ride.

Nothing could settle him, not even the thought that he crossed the same distance as the queen and her daughter in half the time due to the way he commanded the horse. But when he caught sight of the queen's carriage – overturned and splintered, with several wheels pulled clean from the spokes – Neji's heart contracted painfully.

Dismounting, he hunted over the slick ground for signs of life, squinting through the curtain of needle-like water droplets, and exhaled sharply when he saw no one. "Tenten?!" As another string of lightning struck, something gleamed and caught his eye. Spying it, Neji found the golden heart on a chain, given by him to Tenten almost two decades earlier. Half covered in the water of a puddle, the pale swan sat lonely on its surface, the necklace's wearer undoubtedly disappeared.

Suddenly, he heard an odd groan. The noise brought his gaze to the left, and Neji saw Queen Tsunade, her hair thrown into tangles and her dress ripped, as she sat propped against a damp tree trunk. Clutching the necklace, he sped to her side, saying her name forcefully to bring her to consciousness.

"Neji," Tsunade said in recognition. "The little prince..."

He swallowed before he spoke. "Queen Tsunade – what happened? Who—"

"No preparation. Once again, I did not think." Her eyes were drooping. "It happened, as it was said, and so quickly. How did I not..." Her eyes widened now upon Neji, realizing the importance of his presence. Leaning forward, she seized him by the shirt front. "Listen to me, Neji! It seems to be, but it isn't. _It seems to be_..." Her strength gave out, and her hand hit the ground. "But it isn't."

Neji now noticed the gash on the side of the queen's head. Passing a finger through the stream of blood at her temper, he tried to coax her into alertness again. "What isn't? Queen Tsunade! _Where is Tenten_?"

Shocking him, cold tears leaked from the monarch's eyes (so like Tenten's, he thought) to join with the rain and blood on her cheek. "Tenten...she...she is..." Trembling, she fell forward into Neji's arms. "Gone," she whispered as the hands of darkness gripped her.

Neji's face went taught with a combination of fear and anger. "Tenten," he said softly to the unconscious mother. Then, raising his face to the sky, so that above the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, anyone could hear him:

"_**TENTEN**_!"

"_Is beauty all?"_

Breathing hard, he gathered the queen into his arms and lifted her into the saddle of Shikamaru's horse. Mounting himself, Neji gulped down the urge to continue his hunt for Tsunade's assailant and guided the animal back toward the palace. The queen required medical attention.

And he...he would have to think.

_To Be Continued..._


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes: **I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update, guys. Life has taken up a lot of my free time and will continue to do so for the next couple of weeks. I am still enjoying writing this, though, and I hope you all like it too!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto_, _Swan Lake_, or the _Swan Princess_. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

Chapter Five

By Nessie

The storm broke an hour after Neji returned to the palace with Tsunade. In the opposite direction of the wreckage of the carriage, deep into the wilderness that was beyond West Fire's far border but was still considered to be within King Hiashi's domain, was a waterfall, raging now from the swell the downpour had given it. Crystalline water rushed from the top of the crags all the way to the river separating East and West Fire, providing the land its excellent vegetation.

Behind the cliff, to one side of the less energetic stream, was an ancient, stone castle – less grand than either Tsunade's or Hiashi's but sturdier. In the moonlight, the old stone shone silver. The flowered vines that climbed its scarred walls and spiraled its turrets loaned the structure a magical air, as though such loveliness could never have come to be on an otherwise ugly thing naturally. On the ground was a series of dirt paths, one bridge arcing over a thin creek that had broken off from the stream and fed a wide, clear lake at the fore of the castle.

Upon that lake was a single, star-white swan. Its lengthy neck formed a graceful V with the arch of its back, the soft feathers gleaming faintly in the night. It seemed a peaceful creature as it floated near the bank, but there were occasional twitches of the head, rapid blinking of the beady black eyes, or the orange beak clicking in unvoiced distressed.

It aimed that beak toward a figure on the wet shore, whose long hair perfectly matched the dark of his boots and cloak which protected him from the damp the swan sat in. On the pale man's face, a smile twisted into existence.

"Why the long look, Princess?" Orochimaru exhaled quickly, the closest he came to a gleeful laugh without actually emitting the sound. "Surely this spell hasn't depressed you so much!"

The swan's eyes grew brighter with moisture or rage, impossible to tell which.

Beside him, the fully grown Anko knelt on the ground. Her filthy hair was pulled a high, disarrayed ponytail, and the plain dress she wore grew more and more muddied as she tossed bits and crumbed of stale bread upon the lake's surface. The poor excuse for food went stubbornly ignored by the bird. She said nothing but her expression was a genuine smile in the presence of her master.

"Now, now, Tenten. Do not think I would be so ungracious toward my former ruler. Any child of Queen Tsunade's is a highly esteemed guest of mine, here in this refuge," said Orochimaru. He raised a long-fingered hand toward the night sky, gesturing grandly. "See how close the moon's reflection is to you? I have thoughtfully provided a reprieve from your new form! Just wait a moment..."

As he spoke, the white arc of the crescent moon's image on the water fell beneath the swan's feathered tail, and suddenly more light burst into the air, water springing from the lake to form a complete wall around the swan as high as Orochimaru himself. In a handful of second, the water fell back to the surface, and there, appearing as splendid as she had stepping King Hiashi's ballroom the day before, was Tenten.

Her chest heaved in surprise beneath the silk bodice of her dress and the fall of mahogany hair. Eyes wide, she felt at her skirt in apparent disbelief of either one of her transformations, before turning her gaze to the sorcerer on the shore. She knew who he was; her mother had not been so sheltering as to not tell her of Orochimaru, the man who had wanted to overthrow her.

"And it works just like that," finished Orochimaru, clearly appreciating the sight of her in the moonlit water. "When the moon comes up at night, you will revert to human form."

Tenten moved toward the bank, closer to Anko than Orochimaru. The way her dress's hem trailed on the water was not unlike the floating of a swan.

"It is required that you be on the lake," continued Orochimaru, "for the moonlight must touch you from the water. But you're a clever girl. I'm sure you can time it so that you can remained transformed for the full evening."

Now on a grassy section bank, Tenten ignored her soaked cloth shoes and whirled toward him, eyes alight with the fury that consumed her. "Why do you do this to me?" she demanded, voice close to trembling with feeling.

"Well, it isn't because it pleases me." He paused, and then Orochimaru amended, "Well, actually, I concede my small bit of amusement. However, my true purpose is not torture, but takeover." He watched as understanding entered her expression. "Yes. The kingdom of Queen Tsunade is a worthy goal, as you would agree."

"And you would steal it from her by ransoming me," guessed Tenten in cold tones. "Is that your plan?"

"Not at all."

Sure she had been right, Tenten now faltered a little in her speech. "What is, then? You have the power to strip my mother of her reign, haven't you?"

"Ah, you see how the game_ should _work," noted Orochimaru. "How very tactical of you. But I'm afraid my power is not what it was. Paltry transformations of princesses is a novice feat. What I regained in power has taken eighteen years to come by, and for that I thank your mother." His smile widened. "Had she not banished me to this remote region with this abandoned fortress of the Hyuuga family as sheltered, I would not boast even that today."

Anko turned an admiring look to the sorcerer.

Tenten schooled her face into disinterest but felt new concern swamp her. "So your magic is pitiful. How do you intend—"

"As the hostile approach failed years ago," interrupted her captor, "I have concluded that I would not enjoy fighting to retain a stolen kingdom all my life. Thus, I am resigned to a more traditional plan." Sweeping his right arm in a semicircle, light burst in the air.

Tenten squeezed her eyes shut in the blinding illumination, and when she opened them, she was in her mother's grand hall. Tables creaked with feasts, chandeliers above dripped sparkle and flame, and the room was packed with spectators – faces she had known since childhood that made her heart heavy with longing. Was she somehow back? She turned and then noticed the heavy dress she wore was in fact a wedding gown, and she styled hair was topped by a glistening tiara. Looking toward Orochimaru, she saw him dressed to the nines himself, the crest of her family hanging from his neck, and a golden crown rested on his pallid brow. Realizing his intention, she choked down the urge to scream and forced anger to the front of her heart.

"It would be just like this," he murmured. "We could have a legal wedding and would rule in companionship as husband and wife. We could even make a deal with the Hyuuga royal family and expand, reunite the country. King and queen of Fire!"

Sucking in a breath, Tenten raised her arms to the level of her eyes, blocking out the sights. She had noticed the distinct absence of Tsunade. "No!" she shrieked at him. The word acted as the trigger to whisk the visions away, and then it was nightfall in a strange forest again, their garments were restored to those of before, Tenten even felt her hair brush her neck again.

Orochimaru's smile was gone, his nostrils flaring to show his displeasure.

Tenten did not care. She gathered her skirt in her hands and hastened away from him, up the hill to the bridge to cross over the creek.

"Where do you propose to go?" Orochimaru called to her. "Even if you refuse me, you remain here!"

"I won't!" she shouted back, peering through the dark between the trees for a road that was not there.

"There's nothing within miles," said the sorcerer. "Even game is so scarce that hunters do not seek it in this area."

"Then I will walk all night!" cried Tenten in defiance. "I will not be your prisoner if I can help it." She tried to restrain the growing panic of finding no clear way beyond the cliff wall. How had Orochimaru come to the road to kidnap her?

"Do that then. Walk all night. But you will find that with sunrise, no one will recognize you." When the princess froze at the bridge's highest point, he grinned widely enough to show sharp teeth. "You will turn back into a swan, regardless of where you are."

Tenten's whole body grew cold. Knees shaking, she could not even support her own weight as the extent of Orochimaru's cruelty settled over her, and she fell to the ground. Tears broke free as she pressed her cheek to the wet rail of the bridge, sobs following shortly.

Orochimaru approached, Anko at his heels, and ignored her suffering. "You will be given plenty of time to think about your position, Princess Tenten. I will returned tomorrow night." Striding onward, he crossed to the opposite side of the creek and disappeared into his dilapidated castle for the evening.

Her crying did not subside for half and hour. Tenten was not prone to breakdowns, but there was only so much magic, ultimatums, and shock anyone could take before buckling. When she felt her muscles would not give out beneath her, she grasped the rail and pulled herself to her feet, breathing slowly.

When she turned to walk back to the lake, she saw a woman standing on the bank.

She appeared to be about Tenen's age, perhaps a little younger. She wore a plain burgundy dress, and her pink hair was cut to a length above her shoulders. Her bright green eyes looked on kindly as she offered the enchanted woman a weak smile. "So you're the princess," she murmured softly.

Swallowing to regain a steady voice, Tenten returned, "Who are you?"

"Sakura Haruno. I used to live in your country, Princess Tenten." She extended her hands, which were occupied with a plate of steaming bread, vegetables, and meat. "Are you hungry?"

Tenten realized for the first time that she had not eaten since before her disastrous meeting with Neji this morning. At the thought of the prince, her heart gave another, jolting lurch. She felt her eyes heat yet again, and spoke to keep from betraying her feelings. "Yes, I am." Sakura joined her on the bridge and handed her plate, knife, and fork.

"I regret that there is nothing to drink but water from the lake," she said.

Tenten shook her head as she bit from the bread. "I am not at all thirsty."

There was silence between them and Tenten emptied the plate and then thanked her, hoping her nerves and unusual fear would not bring the food back up. "What are you doing in this place?"

Sakura afforded her a sad look. "Now is not the time for stories, Princess. I have prepared bedding for you over there." She pointed to a grove that appeared relatively dry even after the immense storm. "It would be better for you to rest now."

Tenten did not deny that her emotional state and confusion did not rob her of all energy to remain awake. "Please tell me one thing, Sakura," she requested as the other woman rose to remove herself from the princess's presence. "Is there a way to break this spell Orochimaru has put on me?"

But Sakura only tightened her grip on the soiled plate and eating utensils. "Tomorrow," she repeated before she too crossed the bridge, leaving Tenten alone.

Tenten went to the two thin blankets and flat pillow, lying on the hard ground and covering herself. Orochimaru had said there was no game here, so at least she did not have to worry about wild animals approaching her with appetite-driven interest. She fell asleep to the sound of wind through the reeds along the lake, knowing in the back of her mind that she would awaken changed into something she was not.

_To Be Continued..._


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes: **Updates for this fic will hopefully be coming a little more quickly now that Real Life events are ending. Thanks for sticking with me! I apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but I felt like it stood on its own.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto, Swan Lake, or The Swan Princess. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

Chapter Six

By Nessie

Queen Tsunade did not awaken to elaborate on her advice to Neji, leaving the prince with a mystery as to her meaning. King Hiashi ordered a team of servants to care for the queen until such a time when she would wake from her comatose state. Both Hyuuga men dealt with stressful situations; the queen out of commission and her daughter's whereabouts unknown.

Shizune had fallen asleep before the fire the night she had journeyed to tell of the attack upon her leader and now claimed no memory of the event. Devastated, she had remained by the queen's side since Tsunade was brought back to the palace.

Neji set several of his subordinates to work researching possibilities of magic, kidnapping, myths about light, anything to do with East Fire's monarch's words. He himself began a training regime even more strict than the one he had undergone before. Almost every spare moment was spent with Lee in hand-to-hand combat or his father, Gai, an old hand with swordplay.

Both of them had something to say of his obsession. 

"It's madness!" exclaimed Gai in the midst of a duel of blades with the prince. "If it is magic that kidnapped Tenten—" Here he paused to clench his teeth while blocking a high thrust from Neji's advance. "—you will have a difficult time defeating the wielder with earthly weapons!"

"I've no choice," maintained Neji, urging Gai to keep up his offense with a swipe at the advisor's ankles. "I will rescue her in whatever way I must!"

Lee watched stony-faced from a safe distance. After the ring of steel on steel had repeated enough to rival with even the church bells on holy days, he asked (quietly, for once), "You really believe she is alive?"

At that, Neji flung the sword to the ground and whirled to face his longtime friend. "Of course. Don't you?"

"I..." Lee's face looked on the verge of crumpling. "It's been almost four days, Neji, and you've had the whole of the kingdoms in both East and West Fire keeping watch for her. Wouldn't there be some word by now unless Tenten was—"

"She's out there," Neji told him, his tone so firm it allowed no room for the other man to contend otherwise. "Tenten is strong. You know that."

"Yes, but...she was taken in a flash, Neji. Queen Tsunade said she's gone. 'Gone' could mean..." Lee stopped, unwilling to continue after seeing the look that entered Neji's pallid eyes. 

Gai sighed, then stepped forward to set a hand on one of Neji's straightened shoulders. "We cannot be certain of anything, Prince Neji, until we have seen it for ourselves. Lee is right to think logically, but I should think I have taught him to hold onto his hope longer than this." His son visibly drooped in stance.

"Do the implications of the predicament not bother you?" Lee asked at last, trying to find some leeway for the justification of his worry.

"What bothers me," intoned the prince in a low enough tone so that he would be heard by only the royal advisor and his son and not any of the courtiers roaming the sunny yards, "is that I ever let her leave me."

For several moments, the two bowl-haired men looked sadly on their future king.

Neji recovered quickly, standing at his full height and taking on his usual confident air. "But it is no matter because I will bring her home here."

* * *

�"This is what concerns me," King Hiashi said to Shizune. Beside window of Queen Tsunade's current bedchamber, the room she had so recently vacated only to return within the day, he watched Neji train and exchange words with Gai and Lee. "Neji makes a decision and cannot part from it no matter the circumstances."

"One may call that dedication, my lord," Shizune replied. Her voice seemed hollow, as though individual syllables could echo within it, from her place at Tsunade's bedside. "This is not a quality a great many young men possess these days."

Pearlescent, age-lined eyes closed for a moment, considering. "This is true. But I would not have Neji destroy himself over the memory of Princess Tenten."

"Memory?"

"She must be dead," Hiashi said, failing to apologize for the cold reality of his words even when Shizune flinched. "Only if she appears, and soon, will I alter my thought on this. We do not know who attacked your mistress, but harm was clearly the intent. To kill the queen's only daughter – King Jiraiya's single chance for a legacy – would be the one thing that could kill the queen herself without losing a drop of blood."

"But my queen is not dead!" Shizune pleaded. "She but sleeps, King Hiashi! Can that not mean Tenten still lives?"

"Yet I do not see any stirrings in the queen here." Hiashi paused to study the face of his ally of so many years. Tsunade's face was paler despite the sunlight filtering in through the window, her hair lackluster in the sleep plait Shizune had tied the strands into. The hooded brown eyes did not seem even to twitch.

"Give him some time," said Shizune to the older man, "I implore you. If it is passion your son feels toward Tenten, then surely that can lead him to at least traces of the truth. And if he finds clues of her death, then..." The assistant to Queen Tsunade hesitated, tears thickening her throat. "At least we will know."

Hiashi turned his observing eyes to her. "You believe he could do this?"

"Do not you, my lord?"

The king cast his eyes to the far wall, half-dazed. "I do. But I fear that he will and then never recover from the shock of Tenten's death."

"It is a risk he will have to take," acknowledged Shizune, her intelligent eyes narrowing at the sight of Prince Neji once again taking up swords with Gai. "And willingly, I think, he will."

"But look at him!" exclaimed the king, failing to acknowledge that Shizune was already doing so. "He has been at this since bringing Tsunade back here. I cannot bear to see him so tormented." He paused, considering what he would say next. "When my brother Hizashi died, I experienced the same inner tearing which Neji now suffers. To be ripped apart from the inside is the ultimate form of execution, Shizune." Hiashi rested a clenched fist on the window sill. "On top of that, Neji is my heir. The torture he is performing on his mind can only damage him. Such does not befit the leader of a kingdom."

Shizune regarded the ivory-eyed monarch with placid features until she finally gave a soft exhalation that was not quite a sigh. "You are correct in that, King Hiashi. What was it you did to save yourself from your thoughts?"

"I married, at once. I began a new family to replace that which I had lost and raised Neji for Hizashi." Hiashi turned to her, his eyes glazed with reverie. "What do you suggest?"

"Merry-making." She said it as simply as Tsunade would have in wakefulness. "A ball. Summon eligible princesses and let them distract Neji for awhile." Shizune's lower lip began to tremble, betraying her usually impenetrable strength. "It is true, after all, that Tenten is – was – not the only girl plausible for marrying your nephew."

Hiashi nodded, though the movement spoke of heaviness. "Very well. A ball it is." A ball, thought the king, that would feel more like a wake in these conditions.

* * *

�When night fell, Neji gave in to the urgings of the green-bedecked men to take in a meal and get some rest only due to the knowledge that he would not be at his physical best if he resisted. After washing for bed, he traversed the quiet halls to his bedchamber alone, the darkness on his face faintly revealed by the flickering candelabra on the walls. 

When he neared his quarters, his excellent periphery took notice of a flash of white to his far rear-left, and he whirled to come face to face with his cousin, the princess Hinata.

She wore a sleeping gown of pale lavender and over that, a star-white dressing robe. Her long hair, the same shade of black as his own, was gathered over one shoulder. She appeared paler in the dim, inconsistent light, and this emphasized the expression of solemn anticipation on her face.

Neji paused. He and his cousin rarely encountered one another, their upbringings so entirely different. He had remained at the palace with Tenten while she was sent off to school in order to become a mannered lady of the court, since he, Neji, would be assuming the position that was actually her birthright. In light of this, he had always expected at least a little bitterness from Hinata, although the Hyuuga princess had never once indicated such. 

Now, she stood waiting for him, her arms occupied by a thick tome, the weathered binding of which had been only recently cleared of years of dust. 

"Hinata." Neji hesitated, not sure if he should have used her formal title. Concluding from the lack of change in her stance or expression that she did not take offense, he went on, "What have you come here for at so late an hour?"

"T-to give you...well...this, Neji." She took a timid step toward him, and when he did not promptly ignore her, ventured closer. "This volume was found in the higher level of the library. Within it is some information you may find h-helpful..." She faltered here as she made her assumption. "...in f-finding Princess Tenten."

Neji regarded her quizzically but accepted the large book nonetheless. She did not immediately leaving but took a moment to watch as he opened to the page marked by a long, yellowed ribbon. Hundreds of lines of small-print text wrapped around an illustration of a mouse nibbling at a crumb. The picture showed the mouse morphing, enlarging and elongating, until the final form the creature assumed was that of a wide-winged dragon.

Neji stared, at once baffled and enlightened by the image. "Hinata," he murmured, voice coated with realization. "You believe that what attacked Queen Tsunade was a beast?"

The younger royal nodded. "S-specifically, a shape-shifter. M-many of the girls at finishing school were very superstitious of the mystical arts, and one of them gave me this book s-so I would not be totally i-ignorant." She took a deep breath to try and alleviate the stammer she had rarely been able to overcome in her life.

"What makes you think..."

"If she was kidnapped by m-magic," Hinata continued, "then a creature that could change its form would be most c-capable. It would b-be difficult to track."

Neji stared contemplatively at the illustration for another few seconds. The surrounding text told of transformations depending on the time of day, the presence of a certain star, the age of a creature, the light of the moon. So many variables quickly confused him, and despair reached gnarled fingers into his spirits.

Said Hinata in reminder, "But you are an excellent h-hunter, Neji."

The prince's eyes darted from the old page to those of his cousin, silver meeting silver. Hinata lowered her gaze, but Neji's lips slowly curved. For a brief moment, he rested a hand on the princess's slim shoulder. 

"Thank you, Hinata. You have accomplished that at which any number of scholars have failed." Without another word, Neji slipped into his quarters, the book from his cousin tucked firmly in hand. A plan was forming in the prince's mind, as Hinata could easily tell. 

What she could not discern was any sign of that plan's success.

_To Be Continued..._


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes: **So this is where I take some real liberties with the story for the sake of plot. You don't mind, do you? This is AU, after all!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto_,_The Swan Princess_, or _Swan Lake_. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

Chapter Seven

By Nessie

Over the first days Tenten spent at Orochimaru's secluded castle, she saw little of Sakura, who came only to bring Tenten her a proper meal at night. Otherwise the only forthcoming sustenance were bread crumbs tossed onto the lake during the day when the princess was locked in the form of a swan. She had no choice but to accept the stale and then soggy bread or risk weakness from lack of nourishment. Tenten had no doubt this was one of Orochimaru's ways of demonstrating his control.

Each night, a few minutes before dawn while Tenten remained as a woman, Orochimaru came down to the lake and knelt before her, his proposal growing slicker each time the dreaded question was posed. Tenten never offered him any indication of even considering acceptance, however, and she understood his patience to be thinning.

On the fifth night since her carriage had been overturned, Sakura Haruno approached Tenten before her reversion took place. This was not unusual. The pink-haired woman tended to leave a steaming tray on the north side of the lake, and it was to that shore that Tenten drew near before the moon's reflection touched the wings she had yet to consider as her own. Tonight, however, Sakura carried no tray and waited until the moon arrived and Orochimaru's spell receded, leaving Tenten free to greet the other woman at the same eye level.

"I have something I would like you to see," Sakura explained when Tenten inquired into her change of routine. "Or rather, someone I would like you to meet." 

Tenten followed her in befuddlement. She had not been aware of the presence of others besides Orochimaru, Anko, Sakura, and herself in this beautiful and depressing place. The two women walked around the lake to the south side until they reached the powerful trunk of an old ash tree. Before the princess could say anything to her new if mysterious friend, a figure stepped out from behind the tree.

A man, hair and eyes identical in shade, blended well with the shadowed foliage in the surrounding night. Even his shirt and trousers were black. The grim set of his shoulders and mouth clarified his discontent, which hung over him like an impregnable curtain. Yet when Sakura went to him and took his hand, Tenten saw her initial impression was mistaken.

"Princess Tenten," Sakura began, her nervousness adding breathiness to her voice. "This is Sasuke Uchiha."

Sasuke inclined his head a fraction in acknowledgment. "Princess," he muttered shortly.

Tenten could restrain herself no longer, forming the question she had longed to ask since first seeing Sakura. "How have you both come to be here?" 

Neither Sasuke nor Sakura seemed surprised by the outburst. Sasuke's answer was nothing short of direct. "My brother murdered our parents. I came here to kill my brother. When I did, Orochimaru trapped me."

Sakura, accustomed to the Uchiha's terse indelicacy, volunteered details. "Itachi – Sasuke's brother – was to be a subject for Orochimaru's magical experiments. When Sasuke took revenge on Itachi before Orochimaru could test the return of his powers, Sasuke took his brother's place." Her deep green eyes turned downward at the reminiscence. "As it turned out, what powers Orochimaru did have was enough."

"For what?" Tenten absently gripped at her soft skirt, fearing the answer.

"You could say," Sasuke told her, "that I am the proof that Orochimaru's plans for you would work."

"I do not under..." But then Tenten did understand, and the truth hit her like a blow to the head. "Sasuke, what spell has Orochimaru put on you?"

When he did not speak right away, Sakura moved forward and saved him from the question. "Please, Princess, come eat something."

Tenten relented, urging to be called by her first name. She could not seem to stop speaking even when she entered the four wooden panels fit for one to two people, in which Sakura cooked for all three of them. They dined outside of it, sitting in the cool, moist grass. "But why are you here, Sakura, if Orochimaru has not cast anything on you?"

Sakura paused in drinking from a chipped glass filled with lake water. Her eyes flicked to Sasuke's and held. "I am in love," she said. The words were simple enough but the meaning behind them could have scalded Tenten with their heat. "Orochimaru allows me to stay here so long as I provide for Sasuke, and now, for you as well."

The notion made Tenten take a long, shaking breath, prompting Sakura to ask if she was all right. Nodding, she released the flatware she had been using, knowing she could not eat now. "It is only that...that I am as well." The silence born between the three was instantly crushing, and she continued. "He is the prince of West Fire and—" She paused, swallowed. 

Tenten had been going to say that he was now lost to her, but she hesitated. In her mind's eye she could see Neji, standing erect and proud as he had when he had first seen her in his uncle's ballroom. His eyes had turned softly on her for perhaps the first time in their lives, and he had filled her with love that she had refused to give him right away. Even when she had rejected him, Tenten had discerned a flicker of determination in the ivory depths of his gaze. Just because she had run, she now thought, did not mean the Hyuuga heir would not take chase.

"And I know somehow," the princess said at last, "that he is on his way here."

Sakura's hand fell over her wrist. "Do you truly believe so, Tenten?"

She attempted a smile. "I can practically feel Neji's approach. Like the two of you, we are bonded beyond danger. He has been with me since we were both too young to comprehend the meaning of higher emotions. I now realize something I didn't see before." Her fingers rose to her throat where, until but a few nights ago, the necklace from the Hyuuga family had rested. "He can only love me as he knows how. I love him enough that words do not matter in the least!"

Tenten stood, turning her eyes to the sky where there glinted millions of stars, all visible from wherever Neji was. Her smile was genuine now and came easily. "It is certain. He will find me, and then I—"

"Wait." In her unanticipated rapture, Tenten had grown loud as the sky had grown light, and Sasuke quickly silenced her. It seemed unbelievable that they had already passed the majority of the night together. "He comes," said Sasuke.

Tenten knew he was not talking about Neji. Turning, she faced Orochimaru as he and Anko approached the trio.

"I see you have met Sasuke and Sakura." Orochimaru eyed Tenten with steady, almost penetrating regard. "Do you know why I am here, Tenten?"

She had long since abandoned her fear of the sorcerer and taken on resentment as a replacement. "No," bit out the princess, allowing her previous joy to leak from her like water through a sieve. "Why don't you remind me?"

Orochimaru's sickly pale face went taut in the cheeks, but he bent to his knee as he had grown accustomed so that Tenten towered over him. "A simple question," he said, "for an apparently simple girl. Will you marry me?" The tone was overly sweet, and he ignored completely the annoyance that had crossed Tenten's face at his comment.

"Every night you ask a fool's question," replied Tenten steadily, the waves of her freed hair catching in the evening breeze to dance. "And every night you receive the only answer I offer."

His eyes narrowed nearly to slits. "Think carefully."

Rather, she told him immediately, "You can kill me first." The light in her dark eyes was more than enough to convey her conviction. Behind her, Sasuke watched dispassionately, his lover more obviously concerned.

"You can continue this way," said Orochimaru, "at least until I resort to tactics more persuasive than the shape of swan. It seems, however, you require another day to reconsider your options." He gestured to the horizon as the sun made its first appearance.

Tenten's shoulders drooped as she walked stoically toward the lake. She was not surprised when Sasuke fell into step with her, though she was unsure of what to think when he stopped at the ash tree and began to climb its branches. She continued into the water just as the spell activated a spiral of mist, light, and wet, all rising around her, forcing her to close her eyes or go blind.

When she opened them again, the colors of the world were changed. Tenten could see, however, even in this minimized vantage point that Sasuke was no longer there. Instead, perched in the highest branch of the ash tree, was a bright-eyed raptor. The yellow and gray beak appeared deadly in its sharpness, the frightening claws at its feet a clear threat.

Tenten fluttered her wings upon the water, sending ripples along the surface in the tree's direction. From above, Sasuke tilted his feathered head. They were two victims of the same cruel and twisted mind.

"Sweet dreams," Orochimaru called, returning to the castle, Anko at his heels.

A distance away, Sakura sighed. "Goodnight," she murmured to them both before turning to go into her little shelter for a day's sleep.

In the dawning light, two birds continued to stare at each other. It was a strange sort of condolence, but it was all the choice they had available to them.

A single tear fell from the swan's eye to commence another ripple on the lake.

* * *

"_Listen to me Neji. It seems to be, but it isn't."_

Neji barely slept after receiving Hinata's bulky text. Between what his cousin had told him and the whisperings of Queen Tsunade prior to her coma, he could not have been more sure of the engineer of Tenten's kidnapping. By candlelight he poured over the information of shape-shifting beasts alone in his room, satisfied further when he read: _Transformations are often signaled by light of some kind, usually a flash or intense glow of dazzling color._

His heart raced with the prospect of what waited before him. "I'll find you, Tenten." His eyes, bleary from so many words in weak light, went to sit at the window as it filled with both stars and the pale light of daybreak. "No matter what it takes," he whispered, hand fisted near his chest.

The prince did not notice when his head landed on the table, his cheek against the open pages of the book. He did not dream but even in sleep continued to plan a hunt that would determine his future and that of the woman he was now most certain he loved.

Between his clenched fingers was Tenten's golden necklace, the swan engraved on it turned toward him.

_To Be Continued..._


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes: **I am happy to announce that there is a joint project for this fic underway! The members of the NejiTen community at are uniting to make a NejiTen storybook based on "An Everlasting Vow." All links will eventually be posted at my biography page, so it's something to keep a lookout for. Thanks for all the enthusiasm!

**Disclaimer:**I do not own _Naruto_,_The Swan Princess_, or _Swan Lake_. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

Chapter Eight

By Nessie

Neji woke later than he would have liked, meaning he woke too late to avoid crossing paths with his uncle in the corridor leading to the entrance hall of the palace.

"Neji," came the king's expected interruption, "where are you hurrying to?"

The younger Hyuuga detected suspicion in Hiashi's tone and quickly decided that lying would not currently be in his best interest. "I am investigating the source of the green flash Shizune spoke of." He carefully omitted Queen Tsunade's cryptic words as he had not told anyone of his exchange with her on the road.

Hiashi did not overlook the filled quiver and stringed bow slung over Neji's broad back, nor the sword strapped to his hip. He weighed Neji with a measuring stare as he contemplated Shizune's earlier advice. "Very well," said King Hiashi. Not ready to surrender his own plan, he added, "Just make sure you return by tomorrow night."

His nephew's face, already devoid of most expression, now went completely blank. "What happens tomorrow night, uncle?"

"I have arranged for a gathering; a ball intended for the royals of the surrounding realms. It is time I stopped hiding you from the world." What Hiashi did not say was, _Now that Tenten is gone, there is no need._

Neji began, "I am uncertain of how long I will—"

"Be here, Neji," Hiashi sternly interjected. "You are my successor."

The strict reminder kept Neji frozen in place until Hiashi was down the hall and out of sight. His uncle's words were unnecessary. He had not forgotten his duties as crown prince.

But, he thought as he strode purposefully out of the palace, first things first.

* * *

The dawn brought a realization upon Tenten. As a swan, she was deprived of conversation with Sakura, who had hidden Sasuke well from her knowledge. In the same way Tenten transformed on the lake, Sasuke transformed in the ash tree, opposite in direction from where Tenten had previously taken the meals Sakura brought, so that she had never seen the Uchiha at night.

In the day, when both Sasuke and Tenten occupied the bodies of winged creatures, they could understand each other as clearly as they have in communication with human speech, not the clicking and trumpeting of a raptor and swan. They concluded that Orochimaru knew nothing of the magic's loophole as the spell was designed to induce loneliness.

_Why do you stay here? _asked Tenten after Anko had come and gone with crumbs for her and seeds for Sasuke.

_My situation is identical to yours. Sakura chose to remain with me. _The raptor's head turned to the small shelter where his lover slept. _If I want to change, I must be in the tree. Human only at night is better than not human at all._

Tenten's thoughts turned to Neji. _I failed to stay with the man who wants me, and now... _She fluttered her wings in agitation. _If not for this spell, I would fly to him as fast as I flew away._

Sasuke nodded, a bobbing of a small head, then paused. In the next instant, he soared down from the branches of the ash to the dirt at the lake's edge where she floated. The dark eyes of the raptor met those of the swan. 

_Why don't you, Tenten?_

_What?_

His mind whirred. _True, you can't be recognized, but the spell enables us to travel even so. By flight._

In her surprise, Tenten splashed the surrounding water. _Fly? But I haven't—_

_Try_, Sasuke encouraged her. _It's easier than you think._

Obediently (for who was she to trust, if not this kindred victim of sorcery?), Tenten lifted her wings and flapped. And flapped again, and again, until the breeze caught the underside of her feathers, and suddenly she was lifted, water dripping from her webbed swan feet. It felt...natural, in this body.

Sasuke joined her in the air. _Are you steady?_

_This is wonderful!_ She ignored his question, elation giving way to dejection as she trumpeted, _But it won't help! I've no idea where we are or how to find Neji._

He blinked at her, eyes shining with intelligence. _I am in this position because I tracked my brother here from East Fire. Do you doubt that I can find the country in between?_

Tenten curved her long neck in embarrassment and made no reply.

_Admittedly, it would be simpler if I could at least find a map of the shortest route to the main roads. We could look over trees, but that is time consuming, especially since you aren't used to flying and will be slow at first. _Sasuke peered toward the highest turret of Orochimaru's castle. _Certainly, he must have one. He would not have been able to locate you for an attack otherwise. Come!_

Tenten went winging behind her new friend toward the ivy-wrapped turret, blinking rapidly to peer through the window and see into the dark room. _It is open on the other side, _she commented when she saw a burst of light across from them. They flew around the perimeter together, and Sasuke waited for her to enter first.

A yellowed map was almost unseen upon the wall inside the room, crammed as it was with cracked vials and flasks, globes, and charred parchment. Sasuke went to examine the map, but Tenten perched her white body on top of an empty bird cage to look at an unrolled scroll on the center desk. Disorganized as the room was, it seemed Orochimaru often made use of it. There was no dust lingering on the parchment, and closer inspection showed the princess that the string tying it together had been snapped apart unintentionally.

When she read the scroll's contents, she would have paled if not for her form with its already snow-white plumage._ Sasuke_! she exclaimed._ I've found the way to—_

But the raptor's head suddenly twisted to face the closed door._ Anko_, he informed her._ Quick! Out the window!_

Just as they escape the tower, the saw through the glass Anko's thin, rag-dressed body emerge through the door. She dutifully glanced around for disturbances but pinpointed no problems in the room where Orochimaru stored his work. 

When Anko retreated, Tenten would have sighed in relief had she been in human form._ When can we leave to find Neji?_

_Don't rush_, Sasuke told her. _You must have a plan. We'll find this Prince Neji, lead him back here by sunset, and when the moon rises—_

_He'll see that it is me! _Tenten finished for him. _Brilliant, Sasuke! But what about Sakura?_

The raptor was already riding an air current toward the stone outcropping from which the stream emerged. _She can take care of herself, I assure you. Let's not waste time, Tenten. Follow me._

She did as beckoned, and together the two birds flew toward the wet portion of the stone wall that was the backside of the waterfall. Sasuke led her into a nosedive toward the ground and through a slim space occupied only by hanging, flowered vines instead of rock. Tenten assessed that this must have been how Orochimaru went to and from his solitary domain.

Passing through, they burst into the open, sky a mass of blue dotted by pristine clouds as miles upon miles of blooming green forest stretched beneath them. And Tenten grew stronger with every downward thrust of her wings.

* * *

"I hear there's to be quite an event tomorrow," Lee said to Neji, guiding his horse alongside the prince's. "From what my father tells me, an heir to every kingdom on every continent is going to be present. That will make at least half female, you know."

"My uncle must be thinking to distract me," Neji replied stoically. "It won't work."

"And what about East Fire? If Queen Tsunade is missed..."

"Shizune organized a party of servants to ride to the castle there guised as Queen Tsunade going home. The citizens of East Fire have no reason to think she is absent."

"That was clever of Shizune. And you, Neji. You think we can find some sort of malevolent creature that stole our dear Tenten from us?" Lee swept his gaze over the area dubiously. "This forest is so dense for something large to move through it!"

"That," said Neji, "is why I ask that we share our search. Ride south, and I shall go further west. We will meet in the palace at nightfall."

Lee's response was no less than faithful, and he galloped off with perhaps too much energy, as Neji had evaluated him too loud as disruptive for hunting, especially if the sought creature controlled enchantment. Knowing that any southern path Lee took would inevitably lead him back to the Hyuuga grounds, Neji rode on without concern. When the path ended, he dismounted and tied his horse to a sturdy oak before continuing on foot through uncleared territory. 

It unnerved him how few sounds could be heard. More common was the wind through the millions of leaves and the twigs and brush that snapped beneath his boots. Neji's eyes, however, were sharper than his ears. He spied the tracks of animals long since passed through and claw marks of beasts upon the tree trunks. What he found most odd was that almost every trail led the way Lee had gone – as though they refused to traverse uncharted land. The other man would likely encounter more game and wildlife than Neji. That meant the better chance of finding something was south.

Gaging the pair of minutes ago when Lee had started off, Neji called once after him. Lee's hearing was keener than his, and he suspected they could still rejoin before too much time was lost trying to find each other in a change of plan. 

Then, turning back to where his horse was secured, Neji saw the swan.

* * *

The flight over the forest was smooth and warm in the sun until Tenten heard a voice call for Lee. She immediately turned her head up to where Sasuke flew above as her guard. _It's Neji! _she called to him, heart beating drum-like in her breast.

Sasuke predicted her reaction and swooped to block her with his entire wingspan before she could dart down to the trees. _Do not be reckless! He won't know—_

Tenten, however, was in no mood for warnings, and she was the longer bird. Maneuvering around Sasuke, she took her own dive for the treetops. The raptor's subsequent moment of hesitation was all she required to lose him in her eagerness.

She folded her wings to avoid the scrapings of branches on the way down and propelled herself only six feet over the forest floor. Tenten moved cautiously around trunks and untamed shrubs, seeking the prince she knew to be present.

_To Be Continued..._


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes: **Here's the secret...this is my very favorite chapter in the entire fic. It's so fluffy and cheesy you may not even be able to swallow it. But hopefully you'll all like it too. It's a lot longer than the others, too.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto_, _The Swan Princess_, or _Swan Lake_. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

By Nessie

Chapter Nine

Neji obscured himself behind a tree's wide trunk, mind racing in the shade of the leaves. A swan? He had seen no bodies of water near, and although he was not familiar with the terrain, there was no scent to indicate one within at least a mile. He had read in the various nature-focused books he favored that swans preferred moist, cool land.

He took a deep breath, prepared to ignore it, until the prince felt each individual hair on the back of his neck stand on end. A _swan._

The most innocent of creatures, sleek and graceful. He watched it glide between trees, dappled sunlight dashing off its wings in golden arcs. Of course, Neji realized. It seemed to be, but it wasn't. How could anyone suspect a creature of treacherous deeds while in the form of a swan?

Without causing so much as a rustle of his shirt to disturb the quiet, Neji drew an arrow from the quiver at his back. The white bird was flying nearer wit each passing second, in which the prince grew ever more convinced that this had to be Tsunade's attacker now seeking him out for some cruel end. His mouth went dry and he nocked the arrow, the swan winging around an oak to his right. It trumpeted a cry Neji felt he could easily interpret as a challenge. With a thumb, he ruffled the tail of the arrow and waited.

Closer, he chanted inwardly. Closer. His blood rushed through every vein, but as badly he craved action, his patience endured. At last, the swan swept into a space through which he could send an arrow without interception.

Seizing the opportunity, Neji leapt out from behind the tree to land directly in front of the swan, scant feet between them. The swan blinked once in the confusion of any animal found by a hunter, but the prince released the deadly projectile before the bird could react. In the same instant, another bird, a raptor, burst from Neji's periphery and crashed into the swan a mere moment before the arrow could make contact. Both hurtled to safety, then took flight. What would have been a perfect shot to the swan's heart was now ruined.

Rage rose like flame inside Neji as instinct had his sprinting after the two. He avoided tree after tree, jumped logs, and all the while kept his hunter's eye trained on his target. He knew, almost tangibly, that allowing the swan to escape would be the gravest of mistakes. Bow clenched in hand, Neji ran and did not stop for anything.

Above, watched in the spaces between trees from the ground, Sasuke and Tenten flew ahead of Neji's footed chase.

_He almost... _Fairly traumatized, Tenten could not complete the sentence. There was a glassy sheen over the beady swan eyes.

_He's a hunter, _Sasuke succintly told her. _And you are wild fowl. Did you think he would react otherwise?_

_But he seems so angry!_

Sasuke was forced to speed up his own flapping to keep up with her. _Slow down, Tenten, or we shall lose the prince._

_No, no! _she cried back. _He's far too close already!_

_Close? I cannot even see him down there. If he loses track of us, he'll never make it to— _An arrow suddenly shot up and between the two of them. Sasuke involuntarily cawed. _Let's go_, he amended.

They shot through the air, occasionally shocked when a lightning-fast length of pointed wood whizzed up at them, only missing by inches.

_How is a pampered prince so quick? _demanded Sasuke in clear irritation, risking a glance at the figure bounding over rocks and creeks below.

Tenten wagged her neck, disturbed. _He was not pampered when it came to his training, Sasuke. Neji is a highly skilled combatant, and his teacher, Gai, is one of the fastest men in both East and West Fire. It is no wonder to me that he can move so. And he is remarkably stubborn._

_So he shan't give up on us? _At Tenten's nodded, Sasuke said, _Good. The sun has halfway set already. We'll be back at Orochimaru's castle within the next quarter hour, so if your prince does not stop following... _He paused to dodge another arrow aimed for either him or the swan. _Or he does not kill us first, he will be just in time for a reunion._

Tenten replied, _I want to thank you._

_It's thanks enough knowing that if I were a man at the present, I could beat this Neji Hyuuga to a transformation of his own._

She would have smiled if she'd had lips.

Their progress continued smoothly enough until they came near the wall surrounding Orochimaru's claimed palace. Sasuke flew sideways, signaling for Tenten to follow him as they descended to a level putting them in direct danger of Neji's archery so as to fly through the vine-covered entrance, leading the prince.

Tenten could have gone into shock when another arrow went through the feathers at the tip of her left wing without actually harming the wing itself. As they emerged into the open, they flew to where Sakura stood by her feeble shelter, away and unseen from the lake. Sasuke settled on the pink-haired woman's shoulder comfortably as Tenten ruffled in icy fear by her dress's hem.

_Go to the lake_, Sasuke said._ He'll be over there. _

She immediately protested_. I cannot! He meant to end it with that last arrow. Neji shall kill me, Sasuke!_

Sakura even seemed to understand her predicament despite her lack of recent involvement. In what might have been too bold a move had Tenten not so hungered for any sort of comfort in this moment, Haruno leaned down and ran two gentle fingers down the curve of the long swan neck. The physical contact helped to regulate Tenten's heartbeat enough for her to think more clearly.

_If you fail to see him now, your chance is lost,_ Sasuke reminded her. _He will mark you as a mistake, a loss, and he will never return here to find you but continue his search elsewhere. _

The solemnity of his words rang too true for Tenten to attempt a path around, and presently she nodded. Saying nothing, she spread her wings and left them, gliding toward the moonlit lake.

* * *

Neji's chest heaved from the exertion of running so far and long after the swan and the meddling raptor. His arm did not yet burn from the loosing of so many arrows, although his quiver was three-fours emptier than it had been upon leaving the Hyuuga grounds this morning.

The presence of the waning crescent moon above disconcerted him. He had been mostly unconscious of the passage of time during his chase, as well as the darkness brought on by night. He was now not entirely certain of where he was after following that swan. The old castle in its disrepair combined with the lake, eerily uninhabited by wildlife, succeeded in unsettling him. Shifting his grip on his bow, Neji stared across the stone bridge and wondered hazy thoughts.

But when the sound of small pebbles hitting the water alerted him, Neji turned back to the lake and came close to gaping as the swan descended onto the lake directly in his field of vision, unprotected in the open space. Confusion caught at his mind, but he shoved it down. His life had taught him to be confident at all times.

Repositioning himself to shoot, Neji took aim. He did have confidence in this. Undeterred when the swan landed gracefully on the water, nor when it jerked in panic to see the moon, currently covered by clouds. Yet he could not help but cry out when, as before, the raptor appeared without signal and and hit him upside the head with its beak. Incensed, Neji turned on the preying bird. He reached for a new arrow as the impact had caused him to drop the other, but before he could nock it a light washed over him from behind and fell on the raptor, who at once ceased the chance to get away.

Neji whirled around to face the source of the illumination and witnessed a whole pillar of wave-like light rise around and above the swan, swirling gold in some places, white in others. The water it touched foamed and jumped in the reflection of the moon, now naked in the sky. When the light fell away, receding into the water's depths, his previously narrowed, colorless eyes widened.

In the shallows of the lake, right before him as in a dream he had not yet dared to have, stood Tenten. She was resplendent in her still impeccable red and white gown, her mahogany-brown hair long and waving to her elbows. Eyes Neji had longed for days to meet now did just that with a smile more powerful even than the one her lips now formed.

"Hello, Neji," Tenten softly said.

Neji barely noticed even when he dropped both bow and arrow to the stone of the bridge, hastening forward even as Tenten lifted her arms to him. His feet splashed through the water until he finally took her by the waist, and in his disbelief, whirled her in midair to feel how her body resisted the gravity Neji practically no longer felt.

Placing her again on her feet, neither spoke a word before their lips met in a kiss lost somewhere between frenzy and elation, Tenten's hand gripping in the back of his shirt, Neji's buried in her hair behind neck. When they parted, speech seemed a faint memory to him.

"Neji," she breathed, her forehead dropping to rest against the curve of his jaw. "I missed you so."

As her fingers dug deeper into his shoulders, he pulled back just to look at her face. "No one would believe me," he managed to tell her, slowly escaping his own amazement's thrall. "But, Tenten, I _knew_."

Her face was a tapestry of shifting emotion, first joy at his presence, replaced quickly by obvious fear. "You cannot stay, Neji."

"Can't stay?" He pulled the princess flush against him to show her his thoughts on this subject. "Tenten, no. I refuse to so much as let you out of my sight again!"

"Please, Neji, listen—" But she froze when from a distance there came a call of her name in a low, rasping voice. "No..."

"What?" Neji asked. "What's the matter?"

"It's him! He is early tonight!" Tenten stepped in front of him, but he reached for both of her hands and held fast. "He has me under a spell!" she told him, tormented.

She could feel Neji's hands heat in anger against hers. "Who does?" When she didn't answer, "Tenten, who does?" he demanded.

"Tenten!" came the call again.

Neji took her by the shoulders and eased her back. "Let him come." He put a hand to the hilt of his sword. "I will—"

Tenten did not budge. "No, Neji! Orochimaru has power higher than a human man's! You must go!"

Together they hurried out of the water and to the bridge. "You're coming with me then," Neji asserted, reaching for her arm to help her over the steps.

"I cannot," she said, intertwining their fingers even as she hoped he would leave. "With daybreak, I'll change again into a swan."

He was beginning to understand, and Neji's jaw set.

"Please, Neji, you must trust me. If he finds you, we'll have nothing._ Go_!"

"There must be a way of breaking the spell," he pressed, planting his feet when Tenten tried to push him along. Even in danger, his desire to stay with her controlled him.

Tenten's thoughts flashed to the scroll she had seen in Orochimaru's tower. "There is," she sighed, having nearly forgotten. "But..."

"Tell me."

"You must make a vow of everlasting love."

The word stopped him, but only for the briefest of moments. Neji's tight fingers now relaxed over her terror-cold hands. "Tenten, I make it. Right now. I've wanting nothing else since..."

"You are to prove it to the world!" she insisted softly.

Here he faltered, a river in his path of success. "How?"

Tenten's hands fisted when another woman's might have wrung. Her knuckles blanched, but no answer was forthcoming.

"_How_?"

"I don't know!" she burst out, almost physically buckling from the pressure of their situation.

"Tenten!"

"Go!" She did push him now, over a shrub.

Neji swallowed, thinking rapidly. His uncle, of all people, came to mind. Turning, he whispered to her, "There will be a ball. Tomorrow night, come to the palace." He gestured back toward his home. "Before the entire world, Tenten, I _will _make a vow of everlasting love."

Orochimaru's voice shook with fury this time. "Tenten!"

"I am coming!" Tenten called out. She wanted to express her gratitude and the love she herself felt, but there was no time.

"Tomorrow night," repeated Neji.

She could only nod, and in spite of herself, a smile surfaces. "Tomorrow night," she agreed. "Now go!"

Neji at last made to run, then stopped and turned. From his pocket he drew something small, and Tenten caught the shining object he threw to her. She looked into her clutching hands to see the golden necklace, a long-ago gift from the Hyuuga. When she looked up again, Neji had disappeared.

"TENTEN!"

With a gasp, she spun to face Orochimaru, simultaneously hiding the hand holding the necklace behind her back. He scrutinized her in half curiosity, half anger. "Were you unable to hear me calling you?"

"I..."

"I heard voices," he went on.

Not far away, Sasuke and Sakura suddenly spoke to each other far more loudly. Tenten had to restrain a sigh of relief, but to keep her friends from any vestiges of the sorcerer's wrath, she spoke up. "I – I have—"

"You have what?"

"I...have decided to accept your offer and marry you," she said quickly. For effect, she curtsied deeply before him.

His eyebrows shot up moments before a smile twisted his face. "Oh, Tenten, you are indeed wiser than I initially thought. And kind! And good! And – oh, by the way," he veered off-subject, smile falling away sooner than it had appeared. "You would not be aware of who possesses this, would you?" With a snap of his fingers, the longbow Neji had held came to his hand.

" 'Come to the palace'," mocked Orochimaru. " 'Before the world, a vow of everlasting love'!" With a mighty throw, Neji's bow splashed into the center of the lake.

Tenten's eyes narrowed, and she threw an arm out as a physical shield between him and her. "I will _never _be yours!" Orochimaru advanced, and she raged on, "I will marry Prince Neji, and you haven't the power to stop me."

"Oh?" Seizing her wrist, Orochimaru succeeded in prying the necklace from her. "I hate to inform you of this, Tenten, but you have neglected a rather imperative detail. Tomorrow night," he said, nostrils flaring, "there will be no moon!"

Tenten's widened eyes flicked to the sky as Sasuke and Sakura's talking abruptly ceased. Above the waning crescent moon no thicker than the breadth of a needle glimmered on. A new moon would shed no light on this lake the following day.

"No," she exhaled as Orochimaru left her, his overjoyed laughter torture in her ears.

Neji!

_To Be Continued..._


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes: **The tension builds! And we are, in fact, approaching the end. (And the chapters are apparently getting longer.)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto_, _The Swan Princess_, or _Swan Lake_. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

By Nessie

Chapter Ten

The sight to which Anko Mitarashi was most accustomed was the dark cloak hanging from Orochimaru's back, grown slightly ragged over the years and maintained by her sub-par needlework. The garment waved flag-like with every step the sorcerer took, and she cherished the familiarity, but not as much as the five times in her life that Orochimaru had looked her in the eyes.

"Did you see, Anko?" he was saying. "She has almost broken entirely. The human mind craves constancy. Changing between woman and bird, gathering hope and then losing it, all this weakens her practically by the hour. As for Prince Neji of West Fire...well, his vow could become a problem. Tenten does not need to be present for him to prove his love for her. And I have been civil so far, have I not?" He pressed a fist without warmth to the underside of his chin. "I should not have been so foolish. Civility is what lost me my throne eighteen years ago."

The first had been in her childhood, a lone man spotting a starving, abandoned child on his way to begin work for the king of East Fire. The four times following had been only when Orochimaru was particularly pleased with himself, and Anko was his only option for someone to whom he could communicate his feelings.

"Anyone attempting to secretly enter the Hyuuga palace," went on the sorcerer, "would be bodily detained on sight, so murdering him is not possible – as of yet. What is necessary is that I deceive Neji. He is clearly determined to rescue Tenten, but he must be stopped. The question concerns how?

She shut the door behind her once they reentered the castle, having left Tenten to her misery. Anko lingered over the number six when, without any signal, Orochimaru turned and stared at her, possibly alerted to her by the heavy sound of the door as it closed.

"Of course," murmured Orochimaru through sallow lips. "You!"

Anko's mouth went dry. To receive her master's full attention was so rare that she was incapable of forming a worthy response.

Orochimaru grabbed her by the shoulders. "I will disguise you to appear as Tenten! You'll go to the ball in her place, Anko. I'll need to change things here and there, but you both are nearly the same height and shape. Well, you are also too old. But that and everything else is a matter of the right spell."

"Truly..." Her voice cracked. Anko only ever bothered to speak to Orochimaru, yet as he so seldom bothered with her, talking was a skill she lacked practice at. "Truly, master?"

"Certainly. You'll have to prepare, naturally. A girl so ungraceful and meek as you won't pass as East Fire's princess before an entire court of monarchs-to-be." Orochimaru's lips spread back so that his pointed teeth glimmered in the weak light of the old castle. "Can you do disguise yourself, Anko?"

With a vigorous nod, the loyal, misguided woman assured him she could.

"You must understand the beauty of this spell. Once Neji professes his love for the wrong woman, the spell will not be broken. Rather it will break Tenten. You see, Anko," Orochimaru grinned, "the princess Tenten will die. Appropriate homage to two esteemed members royalty!"

Leading her to the center of the room, where no objects stood within ten feet of her, Orochimaru put a hand over her eyes. "I want you to think of all the beauty and grace and independence you so lack and Tenten exudes. Think of how perfect you could have been if you were not so useless a creature, Anko. Dwell in the fortune that passed you by."

Anko subjected herself to his words, allowed them to fill her. If only she were useful, beautiful, graceful...full.

* * *

"It seems your uncle has outdone himself."

A proper compliment paid toward his family in the proper place, but Neji was too preoccupied to entirely appreciate Lee's thoughtful show of respect. He had yet to finish his scan of the sea of faces, notably most of them young women, that roamed the Hyuuga ballroom. "Of course he has," he replied in time. "He always tries to, one way or another."

"No remarkably scathing comment?" Lee noted, although the bowl-haired man seemed unsure of whether he felt surprise or apprehension. "That is certainly unusual. I would have expected a more embittered choice of words."

"Why?"

"Well, for one thing," he explained, "there is so much excess is this room even I find it difficult to enjoy the occasion, and you disdain the unnecessary. For another, King Hiashi expects you to decide which of the eligible women here you will marry before the month's end."

Neji, every sense he possessed filled to the brim with triumph, turned away from his friend to conceal the mysterious twitch his lips gave. "I am not so concerned about that."

The virtual parade of heiresses that had gathered in West Fire for King Hiashi's impromptu ball was essentially a dizzying cyclone of expensive gowns, overly bright color, and estrogen that could be destructive as discreetly or bombastic as the women chose. Each hopeful girl did everything but prance by him to show off her looks, breeding, and talent in order to arrest his attention. Neji's ear was still ringing from the high C one had warbled sans warning.

Not every princess appeared to be at all interested in the prospect of Prince Neji for a husband. Indeed, one tall blond had struck up rather heated bickering with the captain's son, Shikamaru, off to one side of the room and could not tear her narrowed eyes off of the grated-looking man, who appeared just as aggressively captivated by her.

Most of them, however, seemed to have coiled themselves like glittering springs, ready to jump at him with regaling of their wealth, their respective nations' history, and most of all, their attractiveness as women. One such assailant was a blue-eyed girl who wore her corn-yellow hair in a high ponytail behind her tiara. Her voice as it called after him was pitched so high that a visiting prince (most likely attending to survey the pickings without having to hold a ball of his own) had to restrain the dog that accompanied him as it barked at her in response. The talkative princess was soon distracted and allowed Neji to maneuver a few more paces forward before the host of the event successfully located him, Hinata at his side.

"You are not mingling well," Hiashi told Neji in certain disapproval. "There is an announcement expected of you tonight."

"How does Queen Tsunade fare?" queried Neji in what he knew would be a failure of a change of subject.

King Hiashi's frown deepened. "You know perfectly well that you would be informed directly upon her awakening. Just as you know, I am not so easily dissuaded from my point."

"Uncle," said Neji in a manner with which he had never before addressed the king, "has it occurred to you at all that I may have already chosen my queen?"

Hiashi merely started, but Hinata broke away from her father's side to approach him head-on. Neji surprised her when he caught her by the elbows in something that might have become an embrace if the Hyuugas had been raised to do such things. As they weren't, Hinata only clutched at Neji's sleeves. Her wonder at his inference even briefly ridded her of the nervous stammer. "What are you saying, cousin?"

Instead of replying, Neji took her arm and led her away from King Hiashi, who stood floored and stifled from his nephew's retort. "I have never seen you dance, Hinata. Come and impress me, will you?"

* * *

In her swan form, Tenten fluttered wildly, but to no avail. The narrow, ground-level turret into which, with a wave of his bony fingers, Orochimaru had transported both her and Sasuke allowed no space for her wingspan. The most she could do was float in disgruntlement in the algae-riddled damp at the bottom of the turret, glaring balefully up at the sorcerer, who watched from a wooden casement window above.

Sasuke was perched on a rusted iron ring hung by a chain from the far ceiling, his head tilting this way and that in perturbation.

"Now do not favor me with such looks of hatred," said Orochimaru in his slick tones. "Thank Tenten, Sasuke, for your predicament. She craved a company other than mine, such a spoiled, unsatisfied princess that she is. It is only that I did not want to play unfairly. If Tenten cannot make it to the ball at the palace, then you shan't either. I promise to return with a full report on the event." The sorcerer grinned when they met his words with a cacophony of squawk and honk. "Oh, I see. You require even more company? I suppose it is cruel to keep two established lovers apart."

Orochimaru snapped his fingers, his hand glowing. Sakura materialized near the room before plunging down, her startled scream cut off as she hit the water. "Here you are. Your friend can join you." He paid no mind to Sakura's frantic flailing – the girl was evidently too shocked to swim well at the moment. "I myself must be off. It is the poorest show to be late for a ball, you'll agree."

The window slammed to a cracking shut as he left them. Sasuke tugged on the iron ring with his hard, curved beak until the rust gave and the ring to hang on the way to the water. Sakura grabbed that chain at once and sputtered, her hair plastered like a rose-colored scarf around her face, algae sticking to her sopping dress.

_I'm sorry_, Tenten could only say to Sasuke, floating near to Sakura as the other woman caught her breath.

_He has been waiting for a chance to torture us_, Sasuke returned solemnly. He brushed the feathered tip of a wing over Sakura's cheek, then settled on his lover's shoulder. _He will meet his end._

_How? _she demanded, hopeless. _Look at us! There is no escape!_

_You may be wrong, _the Uchiha differed. _In my brief explorations of this dungeon, I have noticed a substantial amount of water._

_Meaning what?_

_Meaning there is a leak somewhere in this wall through which you can most likely swim out into the lake._

Feeling daft, Tenten waved her long neck in protest. _How could I abandon you?_

_How will Orochimaru be defeated if we do not try every potential route to success? _Sasuke's eyes, though those of a raptor's, hardened on her. _It is up to you, Tenten. I will do my best to lead Sakura out of here once she has calmed enough to hold her breath for so long. In the meantime, Orochimaru is planning to dispatch your prince, and I can do nothing for you any longer._

Tenten's fears had manifested. Orochimaru had finally played his final hand, and her options were either to wait and see if Neji overpowered him or if he could be slain essentially by her love. And she did not have the patience to see her love kill her lifelong companion.

_Very well_, she said to him, meeting Sakura's eyes. She thought of her mother, of the expression of strength Tsunade had worn in the moment before facing Orochimaru on the road to the river. A desire to possess equal strength rose so forcefully within her that she did not even say goodbye to her friends before diving beneath the surface to hunt for the way out – and the way to Neji.

* * *

"Neji," said Hinata while her cousin led her in graceful circles amid the throng of other dancers, "is what you told my father true?"

"I was thinking you should help my future wife on our wedding day," Neji told her, thinking of Tsunade's relentless slumber.

"You are so secretive," she murmured. "Will you not tell me who she is?"

"I believe you will know." To distract her for the moment, Neji turned her so that Hinata came face to face with an acquaintance of his, whose bright hair had been easily seen by his eyes and toward whom he had been steering Hinata for the duration of the dance. "Master Uzumaki," he addressed the blond man, "allow me to introduce my cousin, Princess Hinata."

"Oh! So this is the Hyuuga princess!" Uzumaki spoke with none of the gentle tones owned by the rest of the aristocratic gentlemen Hinata usually met. Rather, the astonishing blue of his eyes seemed to be occupied by optimism and perhaps some mischief instead of the usual scheming. "I get what all the talk's about. You _are_ a gorgeous princess!"

Hinata immediately locked up. "G-g-gorgeous?" Her stutter was back, and when Uzumaki swept into a bow in the cape he seemed uncomfortable wearing, the princess colored rose-red from her neck to the ends of her coal-black bangs. Neji actually had to press a hand to her back in order to steady her.

"Call me Naruto," the blond told her with a broad grin.

"I will leave her to you, Uzumaki," said Neji, manually placing Hinata's hand in Naruto's before turning and walking off. The guests appeared to grow restless...

As if in response to his thoughts, the massive doors of the hall was knocked upon loudly enough for the sound to ring over the din of the crowd and the music of the orchestra. Neji almost smiled; she was as assertive as ever.

King Hiashi, in his ongoing befuddlement, sent a servant to answer, although Neji overhead him ask a clueless Gai who could be arriving, as every invited guest had already been accounted for. The prince felt an unfamiliar lurch in his chest, a combination of nerves and thrill palpitating his heart.

The doors were opened to reveal a woman, slim and smiling. Her bark-brown hair, falling over her dress's red trim, was lustrous in the sparkling of the chandeliers, out-shined by her darker eyes. The chatter and music hushed at the entrance of this unexpected woman – a princess, most supposed, or a highly ranked lady. Lee's mouth had dropped open so that his jaw came close to touching his chest.

Not far away, Hiashi had turned to Gai and gripped his shoulder hard enough for his knuckles to blanch. "Who is that?" he demanded in soft urgency of the advisor. His lips had grown thin. "Gai, tell me what Neji has told you of this woman!"

"Nothing, my lord," responded Gai. "It is just...you see her yourself. She so resembles—"

"It can't be!" the king hissed. "Surely she was killed. The carriage in the rain..."

As Hiashi tumbled over his words, the arrival came to Neji, her smile warm and welcoming. "I was uncertain," the prince confessed. So consumed by her presence, he did not even notice that the fabric of her dress which had previously been white was now pitch black. "I feared you would not—"

"Have more faith," she interjected cheerfully. "I will always come to you."

Neji took her hand, a smile of his own playing at his mouth. "Tenten." He gestured to the orchestra. As the music swelled again, he led her into the slow waltz before all the world.

* * *

In the darkness shrouding Orochimaru's hidden domain, a single bubble blossomed on the surface of the lake, where it burst. An instant after, the swan that was Tenten burst similarly from the lake. She gained altitude as she headed for the curtain of vines leading away from the old castle.

The night was devoid of any light, but her bird eyes were sharp, and she remembered the formations of the trees. She was sure that she could navigate through the forest to the Hyuuga palace. But time, Tenten knew, was not on her side. And she could not predict Orochimaru's plan. Flying faster, she allowed herself to hope one more time.

She had someone waiting for her.

_To Be Continued..._


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Notes: **One reviewer asked me about my LiveJournal, which I do have but keep in a friends-only format because I like my privacy. For the one open to the public, feel free to visit **nessiegg.livejournal. com** (take out the space) - I mostly just post fics, but occasionally I talk about future projects.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto_, _The Swan Princess_ or _Swan Lake_. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

By Nessie

Chapter Eleven

There was a range of responses to this princess, so suddenly arrived, with whom Neji seemed so familiar. Everything from appreciative murmurs to approving smiles or indignant name-calling met King Hiashi's ears, but he remained too stunned to hear them. What mattered to him was that Neji's secret was revealed, and that it was good; baffling, indeed, but good.

As for Neji, the prince wore a rarely-seen expression of contentment as the brunette swayed and spun at his lead, the silk of her night-colored dress granting easy movement. But she appeared nervous, a little jerky in her steps. This was unlike Tenten, who could dance with a man as easily as she could with knives.

"You are..." He paused when her eyes turned on his own. They were, of course, brown with the flecks of amber that he had tried to count from memory in the nights without her, but they were also very wide. "Different somehow."

A grin at once materialized on her features. "Do not concern yourself, Neji." Stepping in time to the music, she pressed two fingertips to the heart-shaped pendant at her throat, the gold glittering beneath her skin. "After tonight, everything shall be—"

"Perfect," he said with her. He watched the heart as it glinted and instantly felt better. She was here at last. To stay with him forever. "Yes, Tenten."

The waltz soon ended, and as he rose from his bow and she from her curtsy to the sound of admiring applause, Neji looked toward the maestro, who ceased all music with a commanding flick of his hand. Across from him, Tenten watched expectantly.

It was time to rescue her.

* * *

The muscles that would have been her triceps if she'd been in human form positively burned Tenten, but she flew on at top speed toward the pale, tall structure lighted like a beacon for Hiashi's ball. She was frightened by the notion of what Orochimaru could do to Neji, and all present there – Hinata, the king, Lee, Gai, all the guests! – if she did not make it.

Landing on the nearest windowsill that looked into the ballroom, Tenten surveyed the sparkling scene. She immediately spied Neji standing in the center, practically radiant with dignity. He was facing away from her window, standing with...someone...with...

A soft bird noise erupted from her beak. The sight of her beloved holding her hand without feeling it was disconcerting at best, terrifying at worst. She had anticipated an attack of violence, not of deception! Neji smiled at the woman who was _her _and yet an impostor.

The crowd was silencing itself.

"I wish to make an announcement," he said, loud enough to be heard through the glass, "to the present kings and queens of surrounding nations or their representatives; to the ladies and gentlemen of the court; to my family, and to Queen Tsunade though she still sleeps."

Tenten's breath caught. Her mother was alive! In the fit of misfortune that had found her, she had pathetically forgotten Tsunade. Had Orochimaru enchanted her as well?

"Today," Neji continued, "I have chosen my bride."

_No. _Tenten's head shook involuntarily. _No!_

Hinata smiled from her place beside a blond lord. Even she could not identify the other princess as false.

"I wish you to know her as the future queen of the king of West Fire," said Neji, "and, eventually, the kingdom of Fire once more in its unification."

Desperate, Tenten flew to the next window, then the next, attempting to enter Neji's line of vision so that he could realize what was happening. She tapped wildly at the glass with beak and wing. _Neji! Neji, you've been tricked! You've been—_

But Neji still did not catch sight of her. "So that I may prove my feelings for her, something at which I have failed in the past..."

Tenten soared to yet another window and saw that the figure bearing her body now pressed herself to Neji's side, and he faced away again, as though she had turned him thus on purpose. If she had been seen by the impersonator, then Tenten knew this was the case.

"...I now make a vow; a vow so strong that it may not be broken, by man, magic, or beast, stronger than any force on earth, to best all vows..."

The tapping changed to beating, and a gilded edge of the window sliced open an inch of Tenten's wing, blood tainting the pure swan feathers. In her icy horror, she did not even register the physical pain. Her spirit, however, was ablaze with agony.

She went into a frenzy of searching for entrances, attempting a cellar door (chained), a fountain built into the wall (caged), and a servant's window peering over the ground (rusted shut) before returning to the bright pane of glass that framed the cause of her heightening panic.

"Here, before the whole word," Neji was concluding, "I make a vow of everlasting love."

_NEJI!_

The prince gestured to the woman who now stood just behind him, gloriously beautiful in black and red, flowing hair, and oddly nonchalant smile. "To the princess Tenten."

Neji's slow stretch of the arm was like a blow to the neck, leaving Tenten stunned and then pulsing as the emotional pain and the physical melded and became indistinguishable. Something inside her like started weakening, like a column of wax under a flame. It hurt, but she managed to flutter upward and catch the breeze, directing herself back toward the lake in Orochimaru's heartless domain.

* * *

A blend of polite clapping and ecstatic cheering swelled in the ballroom, and Neji squeezed his future wife's hand. Before he could say a word or hear one of hers, a gust went through the entire room, extinguishing lights and billowing clothes. There was no source for the mysterious wind, until the double doors clattered open.

Neji saw a cloaked man on the steps, saw his lips curved and his eyes narrowed. Reading ill intent, he held a hand to the woman beside him before proceeding forward. "Who are you?" he demanded before his uncle could.

"I suppose I will be the courteous one and say simply 'hello' first," replied the long-haired, pale newcomer. The coolness in his voice soon cracked, however, and he came near to doubling over in restrained laughter. "You behaved so predictably!"

"What do you..."

"And astoundingly, I may add. Pledging your everlasting love to another," said Orochimaru, "is quite the feat of witless disloyalty."

Neji's facial features hardened. "What are you daring to imply?" Aiming another hand to the black-clad woman, "This is Tenten!" he exclaimed.

"Tenten," he was corrected, "can never be with you. Tenten is out there. _Tenten is mine!_"

The truth dawned on Neji with all the gentleness of a boulder hurtling down the cliffside to squash him in the ravine. "It's you! The one who did all of it to her, to Queen Tsunade." He watched the sorcerer jerk at the mention of the monarch's name. "You are finished," Neji declared. "I made a vow of everlasting love, and Tenten—"

"No." Orochimaru lifted his right arm. "You made a vow of everlasting _death_." With a stretch of his fingers, a fine line of orange-gold light trailed from him to the woman behind Neji, who writhed and collapsed on the carpet.

Neji froze for a split second, then raced toward her, calling out for a response. But even as he ran, he saw the brown hair shorten and grow brittle, then discolor to a shade of wilted lilac blooms. The skin paled and the face contorted to a new face. By the time Neji knelt at her side, Tenten had become someone else completely. The strange woman rose shakily to her feet and then went to join the sorcerer.

Gasps and outcries burst from the witnesses. Someone fainted. Neji noticed none of it.

Orochimaru added, "And Tenten fades quickly." With a sweep of his arm, he drew Neji's attention to a western window that held the night sky and, in its center, the wing strokes of a retreating white swan.

"Tenten!" Neji cried, unable to believe his own fooled state.

"I would hurry," came Orochimaru's cruelty-slicked advice. "If you put in the effort, I am sure you will be able to meet her for one last, short goodbye."

The prince exhaled once quickly, as though to expel his own weakness, before bolting to the door without heeding Orochimaru any further. There was only one chance, and time was most obviously of the essence.

What had he done?

In the ballroom, Orochimaru did not bother with the other members of the royal family, although both daughters were present and would make for an almost effortless murder. Hiashi was a crownbearer that did not interest him. To amuse himself, he made a suggestion to Anko.

"We should hurry home, my successful actress. There is still a dramatic ending to see tonight." With a touch to the girl's elbow and a lift to his night cloak, Orochimaru dematerialized from the palace grounds.

It took mere seconds before the terrified, quizzical screams and demands broke out from the horde of attendees. To escape them, Hiashi was ushered to the stairs leading up into the castle using Gai as a bodyguard. He ascended only ten steps before he came face to face with a woman whose yellow hair was tangled from a sleeping braid and whose brown, somewhat bleary eyes flared with unleashed passion.

"Hiashi," said Queen Tsunade in even, fearsome tones. The king could not speak for shock at the sight of his old friend awake right in front of him. "Where is my daughter?"

_To Be Continued..._


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Notes**: This is the last chapter, but an epilogue is on the way!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto_, _The Swan Princess_, or _Swan Lake_. I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**An Everlasting Vow**

By Nessie

Chapter Twelve

Away from the Hyuuga palace, Tenten's wings seemed to grow slower and heavier with every downward thrust as she propelled herself across the sky, over the miles of forest and through the curtain of vine that opened into the grounds of the derelict castle. The air she soared through was charged with an unnamed force, and her strength was sapped by it more as each minute passed.

She had fled so frantically that all control over herself had been surrendered to her pain. Aiming for the water, Tenten found she could not decrease her speed, and only the tips of her wings streaked through the wet surface, throwing arcs of dripping light as she flew over the lake completely. Out of the corner of her eye, Tenten registered a flash of pink hair. Sakura watched in frozen fear, still damp but free of Orochimaru's dungeon.

The cold stone of the bridge leading toward the castle caught her, and the swan lay stretched face-up near the steps leading to the arch, wings outspread. A familiar blend of warmth and cold flooded within her, light rising in her blurring vision. And then the notch of a wing became an upturned wrist and fingers dangling over the top step, a hard beak became a softly-parted mouth. Through her lashed eyes, Tenten vaguely noted that there was still no moon to greet her in her ruined state.

Was this...all?

_What more is there?_

Tenten could have smiled if she'd possessed the strength. Neji's words, the question that had led to their series of misfortune, seemed apt enough in this moment. Her heart gave a swift, sharp twist inside her and she took to long pulls of breath as any strain on that particular organ would not be best.

Overhead, she saw Sasuke, still in raptor form as he circled above her in the darkness of night. Wasn't it odd that she had transformed and he had not? She could not begin to explain it. In fact, there were a great many things she could not even successfully think of right now. But Neji...she could think of Neji and of the way his eyes had widened to such disbelieving size when he first saw her upon the lake. To think that had been only last night. It seemed so long ago to Tenten.

And then, so strangely, Neji was there, his eyes so like the moon that had abandoned her tonight

* * *

Unlike her, Neji could not even summon the wonder of why Tenten had reverted to human form. After bursting through the vines so forcefully that several leafy strands snapped from the bough above, the prince raced across the grounds following the same path as the previous evening, though on this non-illuminated night the travel was more difficult. When he arrived at the fore of the old castle, his breath fled from his heaving chest as though exorcised to see the princess he sought lying supine on the chilled stone floor.

There was blood coating her left sleeve where a wing must have been minutes earlier. Neji took no heed of the hovering bird he had chased before nor of the chalk-white woman standing in the distance.

"Tenten?" Her name grated from his throat like air between thorns, and, rushing to her, Neji dropped to both knees at her side. "Tenten!"

Her eyes, previously drooping, now blinked rapidly and then opened entirely to look up at him. "Neji?" she queried as one in a dream, unsure of her sight's true witnessing.

"Yes," he murmured, almost afraid that too much volume would damage her somehow. "I'm here, Tenten." With gentle arms, he lifted her so that only her body below the waist touched the stone. Her skin felt as cold under his fingers, and he tightened his hold on her unwittingly. Neji's hair fell forward, an ebony curtain on the side where Orochimaru's fortress was, leaving only the lake open to her view.

She trembled against him, one hand reaching up toward his neck. "I am...so weak, Neji."

"No, no." He said the words, hardly hearing them himself as he recounted a thousand memories of their child's play, in which he had been bested by her as many times as he had done the besting. "Strong," he refuted, eloquence gone.

"I must be..."

"_No_!" He took her hand, pressed it to the place over his heart. "You are going to live, Tenten. With me, forever. The vow I made...the vow the world heard...that was for you."

She nodded, but the movement was reminiscent of the water tumbling over the fall in the forest, never to be seen again after in that single second. "I know that." Briefly, her fingers returned pressure on his. "I love you, Neji," she whispered. Only too soon, those fingers released altogether.

He froze, sound fading in his ears as the princess's head fell back over his forearm, her long brown hair cascading beneath her. The rest of her grew still.

"Tenten?" Why he made her name into a question was unknown, however, Neji knew the truth. As he laid her tenderly down upon the stone, his limbs shook with a rising fury even as his blood screamed in pain. "My vow...it was..."

"For her," came a sneering voice. "But of course it was."

Bolting to his feet, Neji whirled to see Orochimaru standing yards away, looking on.

"And she knows that," he continued through lips spread in a grotesque mockery of a real smile. "Or rather, knew that."

And then Neji's hands were on the older man, bunching in his ragged black clothes, and he gave a tremendous shake of the sorcerer, whose smile at once vanished. "Do _not_," he warned Orochimaru, "allow her to die."

Orochimaru appeared unimpressed. "A threat? Is that what you mean to—"

"Do not so much as _dare_ to allow her to die!"

"Ah, that _is_ what you mean to make. You are quite outspoken tonight, Prince Neji."

Knuckles turning as white as his eyes from the grip, Neji practically lifted the man from the very ground. "If you have the power – and I can see that you do – then _do it_!"

The false expression of ease Orochimaru bore now flashed to one of outrage. Throwing out both arms, the Hyuuga future ruler stumbled back a few paces. "Very well," he snarled. The nostrils flared in menace. "Will you fight for your dying princess?"

The air around him crackled, sparks shooting from nowhere to nowhere. Orochimaru aimed both arms skyward, and then he was enveloped by a shifting, pulsing light that grew like a pillar around him.

The color of the spell's visual manifestation flared onto Neji's stricken face. He could hardly comprehend it. _The green flash..._

The pillar rose several stories high, a sickly shade touching every leaf on the surrounding trees, temporarily dyeing the lake's silver water to that of the light. And when it went away, the light did not fall as it had in Tenten's transformations but rather blinked out of existence to reveal a towering, squirming serpent.

The deadly form Orochimaru had taken snapped fangs that dripped poison, a forked tongue dark and darting from the large mouth. In his surprise, Neji did not move for several moments until a shrill call from the raptor brought him to his senses.

With the instincts of the hunter, he ran toward the castle, away from Tenten's unconscious body to prevent any harm toward it, fingers grabbing for the hilt of his sword. Without getting too near a wall where he could be trapped, Neji spun and faced the monster, blade upheld. The snake that was Orochimaru slithered at a remarkable speed, undaunted by the steel pointed at him.

He dropped his head to snap his teeth at Neji's left side, which Neji dodged, then his right, also a miss. Neji seized the moment to take a swipe at the snake's exposed neck and left only a lengthy scratch, cold blood seeping in response. It was not enough to stop Orochimaru, nor even to slow him down. Repositioning, Neji played defense, holding the sword one-handed, the other hand outstretched to feel the space around him and sense an assault.

He was not disappointed, and the scaly skin that covered the enchanted body left a shallow gash in the prince's shoulder. Ignoring the pain, Neji advanced, forcing the serpent to retreat a little, toward the castle's east side, by thrusting repeatedly.

With the difference in size, however, his defense was not impenetrable, and Orochimaru found a break in Neji's swinging to bat him once sharply with the whiplike tail. Neji soared backwards several feet above the ground, his spine meeting the oblique wall beside the bridge. His head hit the crumbling remains of what might have been a sculpture in the past, but now served only to set stars exploding in front of Neji's eyes.

His vision was badly blurred, so perhaps he only imagined it, but Neji thought he saw a pink-haired woman dive into the lake, only to come up in the minutes Orochimaru angled his flattened head this way and that to inspect his enemy, now that Neji's sword had not only been knocked from his head but shattered by the last blow as well. Cuts gained in the rash move now shone brightly on the snake tail, but Orochimaru remained focused on him instead of the wounds.

The raptor called again, and from seemingly nowhere appeared, a familiar wooden object carried by the lethal talons and dropped into Neji's lap. The Hyuuga clutched at the bow, wet from the lake, as the raptor took off toward the snake, showering Neji with water droplets as he went. The prince did not have the presence of mind to be surprised when the bird went for Orochimaru's slitted eyes with the curve of its beak.

His bow retrieved, Neji was still at a loss. The snake recoiled from the raptor but remained upright, and what use was a bow without a—

"Neji!"

There was no time to look in the direction of who called for him, although Neji knew for a fact that it was Lee. His friend must have followed him from the palace. Instead of looking, Neji instinctively extended a hand and closed his fingers just as a thin arrow came into proximity of his grip. The rest was natural.

Arrowed notched, the muscles of his right shoulder tightly bunched as he took aim and fired. The raptor soared off as, with a shriek-like hiss, the serpent bent backwards, then fell forward. The arrow lodged in his heart went still deeper, pushed in by the ground that cracked on impact.

Mere seconds later, a shower of motes like the lights of fireflies flew from the giant snake, and then the creature – the sorcerer Orochimaru – vanished, body and soul.

On the other side of the lake, a shocked Lee watched from beside the woman who had emerged, sopping, from the water just as Lee had entered the hidden grounds. His eyes went impossibly wide when the raptor he had seen charge a giant snake on its own flew toward them. The pinions suddenly burst into white-gold light, followed by the rest of the small body, until the bird came to a stop some feet away, and the light lengthened. Once the light fell away, a man replaced the raptor.

Lee could only witness, agog, as the woman beside him pressed a hand to her mouth and stumbled forward to be caught by the dark-haired stranger, his arms already opening for her. "Sasuke," she murmured before the man's hand dived into her pink hair and pulled her head back to seal his mouth to hers. Lee, smiling goofily, was heartily embarrassed, but neither the man called Sasuke nor his lover seemed to so much as notice him there.

He set his gaze across the lake again, and Lee's smile fell.

Neji, his bow discarded, had placed himself once more beside Tenten. He had gathered her lifeless body against him, slightly rocking her as though to help ease a pain that she could not feel, her forehead balanced against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," Neji murmured into her unhearing ear, speaking to her as much as to his own soul. "Forgive me, Tenten. I tried to break the spell...that was all I wanted." His shoulders shook, not with tears but with an emotion that could not physically exist. "And you did not deserve this. You have always been so strong, and so brave, and you...you've always loved me, so kindly loved me." His fingers slipped behind her head, smoothing the limp brown hair. "Just like I have always been yours, Tenten."

He held her to him as closely as last night. When he was shaken by another tremble, Neji did not immediately realize it was from his own body.

Tenten shifted, her forehead rising from his shoulder, to blink rapidly into his eyes. "Neji," she murmured in wonder.

Neji's lips parted in pure shock, almost unwilling to believe. "Tenten?"

Tenten's gaze softened, and her arms wound over his back and around his neck. "Oh, N—" His name was silenced by the force of his kiss as Neji rose to his knees and brought her up with him. They did not break apart for many minutes.

And from across the glittering lake, Lee knew that he saw everlasting love.

_To be concluded..._


	13. Epilogue

**Author's Notes**: Well, everyone, thank you once again for a great trip. I had too much fun writing this, and now it's going to be interesting getting back into fics that aren't totally on crack. I may have to do some drastic angst to balance out. But for this last chapter, you get enough fluff that you can probably float on it. This whole fic has really been one huge fluff overdose.

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer**: I do not own _Naruto, The Swan Princess _or_ Swan Lake._

**An Everlasting Vow**

By Nessie

Epilogue

Two embers joined and became the unified kingdom of Fire on the day Prince Neji Hyuuga married the princess Tenten. They were crowned side by side in a coronation held on the steps of the castle in which Tenten's father, King Jiraiya, had lived. It was Neji's first visit to Tenten's home.

He watched his wife tilt her head slightly forward to accept the glistening coronet befitting a queen. The young man did not yet consider himself a king although he bore the weight of the crown his uncle had passed down to him. Part of Neji was still locked in the past, in the moment when he had believed he'd lost his friend and love forever.

But that was over now, he remembered when, once bearing the bejeweled circle of gold, Tenten turned her eyes to his and smiled. A similar expression curved his lips. They both stood from their kneeling positions before her mother and his uncle, Neji's cape fluttering at the tops of his high boots, the white skirt of Tenten's silken wedding gown flowing about her. Shizune, on hand as always, stooped to arrange the long train so that she did not trip. When the royal couple leaned in for a kiss as binding as the rings on their fingers, the multitude of onlookers – citizens of both the former East and West – broke into earth-shaking cheers.

Tenten ascended a couple of steps in order to enter Tsunade's embrace. The woman who shared her eyes fondly stroked the wavy length of her brown hair. "One day," said Tsunade, "you will have to tell me the whole story."

Tenten beamed at her. "It was a dream, Mother." Glancing at Neji, "Just a dream," she insisted.

Hiashi had very little to say to her, but his words were always approving. She did see the man who was still a king in most regards (although he now wore a medallion rather than his crown) clasp hands with her husband and say something to him that was too low for her to hear. She did not need to hear it, Tenten decided at once. She no longer required words.

Neji extended his hand to her, and Tenten slipped her fingers through his with a grin. They had come full circle. Together they climbed into a wide, open carriage in which they would ride through the streets of both Tenten's homeland and Neji's before continuing on through the forest to the site of the castle where their story had unfolded. The palace and the grounds had undergone renovations while wedding preparation were made, and from there they would rule.

Neji pointed, and Tenten looked around to see a familiar head of pink hair. Sakura stood with her lover, Sasuke looking on broodingly. Her emerald gaze alternated from them to Sasuke and back again. It gave Tenten comfort to know that they would be together and inseparable from now on, and she waved to them. Sakura waved back, but Sasuke merely slipped his arm casually through hers, as though every second was perfectly natural and anticipated.

Along the way, between the throng of people that filled the streets on either side, the new king and queen saw Gai and Lee. Gai would remain on the grounds of the main Hyuuga palace but Lee would be moving west with them. His timely moment of help in that place had easily secured for him the position of advisor to his friends. It was probably due to this fact as well as the day's event that both Lee and his bright-toothed father sobbed enthusiastically, calling their names in adoration and shouting wishes of health and happiness.

Tenten was the one to first spot Hinata. From their vantage point in the carriage, neither one might have seen her at all. Though she was no longer as invisible as she had been, the petite princess still had a knack for disappearing into crowds big and small. It was the attention arresting presence of Lord Uzumaki, known by the monarchs as Naruto, who set Hinata pleasantly apart from the rest. The lavender she wore nicely complimented his hair.

Mischievously, Tenten threw the bouquet toward them. Hinata caught the bunch of white roses on reflex, startled only a little when her companion set a hand on her shoulder. Tenten had just enough time before the carriage rounded a street corner to see Naruto pluck one of the roses from the bouquet and weave it through Hinata's hair behind her ear.

Turning to Neji, she asked, "Does this mark an ending for us?"

The expression his face adopted, soft and intense all at once, was for her eyes alone. "No. We have had our ending."

"A beginning, then."

He passed an arrow-calloused thumb over the back of her hand, shaking his head so that dark locks fell over his shoulders, contrasting with the fabric of his wedding day clothes, pale golden like the locket that had been retrieved for her and which she wore at her throat; a sign of devotion and a way to never forget what they had endured together. "We have had that, too."

Tenten agreed. To think of beginnings and endings was to think of a time when they were apart, and both of them intended to forget such a time.

As they were edging out of the old border into the open fields of Neji's former home, the new queen thought she saw a woman sitting on a fence, watching quietly. She was not at first recognizable in a clean dress without patches, her hair combed and her face washed, but Tenten knew she was looking at Anko Mitarashi. And from her contented smile it appeared, despite her obvious fixation on Orochimaru while the sorcerer had lived, that she was happier than before.

Once Tenten looked a second time, Anko was gone.

"I have been thinking," Neji said and gaining her attention, "what changes should be made now that the two kingdoms have fused again. Laws will need reconciliation. Borders will have to be redrawn."

She would liked to have nestled into his arms, but as they were in public, that would have to wait. "Changes will have to be made." Laughing shortly, she added, "I am familiar with that!"

Neji's palm rose to cup her cheek. The smile had departed, replaced by his usual solemnity. Surely he was thinking of the various forms in which he had seen her; the winging swan, the black-garbed artificial princess, and, of course, every stage of her from infancy to womanhood.

"Whatever changes you may undergo," the king told her, his voice soft without actually being quiet, "one change that you will not face is the way I love you."

She gripped his wrist to draw out the contact. "For all of our lives, Neji? Until we both die?"

His mouth quirked. It was the face he took on when he was most pleased. "For longer even than that, Tenten." To seal the vow, Neji pulled her to him in the plush seat, his fingers gentle upon her shoulders left bare by the gown.

Tenten indulged in a sigh as his lips met hers in the sparkling day, his hand behind his head. She needed no more vows. She believed in and trusted Neji. They had proved their love for each other.

The King and Queen Hyuuga would live long, destined to prove it to everyone else as well.

**The End**


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